Accidental Evolution
by theICEBear
Summary: 10thRose, There are things Rose can't be allowed to remember. However someone capable of looking past those guards is about to set things in motion that will change many things for the crew of the TARDIS. Set during middle of season 2 then goes AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Accidental Evolution.**

_-A Doctor Who fan fiction by theICEBear_

**Setting: **The 10th Doctor, Rose and Mickey travelling just after the Girl in the Fireplace.

**Summary:** As the Doctor and Rose travel up and away from Earth, they go to the Chton Empire in the 51st Millenium to pick up a few spare parts and end up in quite a pickle as a war starts between the Chtonians and the Time Agency, which endangers the time line. In the middle of it all the crew of the TARDIS makes discoveries about themselves and the history of Jack Harkness. And that is just part one. Note that this story due to its nature will diverge from the 2nd season universe as it tries to do more than just explore existing natures and give points of view. This is more of a plot bunny that stuck in my head after watching Season 1 on DVD before catching season 2 up until Age of Steel. I stopped it early because of the coming end of the 2nd season and the Rose-related event that might make me stop watching as I am watching for the interplay of Rose and the Doctor and don't feel like investing in a new companion be it Captain Jack or anybody else.

**Part 1: The One-sided Chess Match**

**Chapter 1: Opening moves**

The TARDIS lurched and shook. Mickey was shocked at the brutality of the trip. He could barely remain standing as the Doctor guided towards whatever location he had picked as their next landing spot. He was beginning to doubt his reason for choosing to come along. It all seemed too dangerous all of a sudden. He had reasoned his chances with Rose, if he still had any, were bigger if he was actually around her. Closer to understanding her life even if a voice in his head was constantly warning him how dangerous this was. There was another bump then. "This is insane," he said.

Rose stared at him, "What?" She looked shocked like this was a normal ride. He really hoped it wasn't. He had his experiences with aliens now. And it was enough to harden him a bit. Compared to what he had seen so far, maybe this wasn't so bad.

"There we are," the Doctor said and flipped a switch. The throbbing of the TARDIS engine stopped.

"So where are we?" Rose seemingly bursting with energy was bouncing around the Doctor looking ecstatic. The Doctor just smiled and walked towards the doors.

"Welcome friends to the 51st century, we're just landed on Eridani IV one of the largest commercial space ports the Universe will ever see," the Doctor explained as he and Rose stepped out first. He heard Rose's gasp and followed them out.

He couldn't help himself. He had to stand and gape. There he was, he had seen aliens, he had seen the space ships and had even mentally confronted the idea of travelling in time, but it hadn't prepared him to this. It was like taken out of the grandest of sci-fi fantasies. Space ships parked row after row like on a giant airport going all the way to the horizon. Every where there was ships taking off, landing, manifesting or whatever it was called. And they seemed to come in all shapes, sizes, colours and technologies. "Wow," he gasped.

Rose gazed at him and gave him an indulgent smile as if she hadn't also just been dumbstruck. "So Doctor, why are we here?" He had to ask.

Rose looked at the doctor with an appreciating smile on her lips and he grinned back at her as if they were both in on some joke he wasn't. "We're here Mickey, my boy, because we are. Adventure will find us if it wants, but mostly I just wanted to show you guys this place and pick up a few parts for the TARDIS. I am running low on a few things and I'd loathe to let the old girl down," the Doctor explained.

"Adventure will find us if it wants to. Is that how you go around? No plan, nothing what so ever," he blurted in shock. He had imagined it a bit wild but nothing like this. How could they do this? How could they not have some sort of travel plan.

Rose just shook her head and followed the Doctor to a square set in the floor next to the TARDIS. "Well come on," she said and waved for him to follow. That girl was way too bossy at times... Although as usual her smile and presence was strong enough to make him forget it. He followed berating himself why he had gone along on a whim.

The square glowed for a moment and suddenly they were teleported somewhere else. They stood in a massive long corridor big enough to fit in the entire Big Ben sideways and standing up. Everywhere aliens and only some of them humanoid walked. And like Rose had promised it seemed to him like they all spoke English. He also noticed that a species looking like spiders the size of his car with a humanoid torso was predominant. "Doctor what are those?" he heard Rose inquire with a look towards the spider creatures.

"Those are the Chtonians. One of the great races in the history of the Universe they're great shipbuilders, artists and philosophers, but don't underestimate them just like the humans they can most certainly fight back. They've got an empire encompassing entire galaxies and they defend it and the law inside it like a mother would her kid. They're quite an interesting species really... Both internal and external skeleton, telepathic and quite nice. I had one aboard the TARDIS a while back. In the end he had to leave though, his family needed his help running their planet," the Doctor rambled while they walked down the massive road side structure filled with small vendors and hundreds of walking aliens.

He was sure this was what culture shock felt like. Seeing all of this, all of these beings, each and everyone of them a sentient space faring race made him realize how big the universe was and how insignificant he was. Again his doubts resurfaced. He stopped for a moment and nearly lost sight of the Doctor and Rose who were with no seeming ill effects enjoying the sights and chatting. He ran to catch up, when the Doctor suddenly dashed off towards a stall that was manned by what surprisingly looked like a human. Rose followed along as did he.

The Doctor withdrew his universal tool the sonic screwdriver as he walked up to a terminal next to the stall, while Rose started browsing what looked like scrap lain out carefully on the desk. The Doctor came back around a few moments later and started following Rose's example. "What are we looking for," he asked feeling a bit left out.

Rose looked at him and said, "No idea, but this looks a bit like something I've seen before." She said and pointed towards a tiny black rod like device.

"Ah, well, done Rose, it is one isn't it. They are rather small when folded together. Did you ever find out where Jack usually hid it?" The Doctor asked and waggled his eyebrows.

Rose giggled and replied, "yeah, but only because he told me that he had to take it out before... you know dancing." She looked about ready to burst out laughing again. He had never seen her like this on a regular basis. She was almost like a school girl full of energy and wonder not giving a thought it seemed to the dangers out here.

However suddenly as he watched her face, her smile stiffened and she stared towards the Doctor, who was in turn staring out a massive see-through panel showing yet another huge airstrip. He looked it over. The ships were all of the same type though unlike the one they had landed on. And they all looked rather serious. They were huge, black, spidery things built in an ominous mix of organic curves and glowing energy ports which he couldn't tell if they were engines or cannons.

"What's wrong?" She asked wondering what was causing the Doctor's expression. The entire planet seemed nice and friendly even the big spider creatures seemed friendly enough although having only met them for the first time what she felt might be entirely off-base... or was very likely to be.

"Those ships," the Doctor said in a tone he usually reserved for end of the world kind of things. She took a step side ways to get the view shared between the Doctor and Mickey.

"What off 'em," she asked. She realized that the ships looked both dangerous and alien, but there was just a feel coming off of them that seeming rather more friendly than they looked even behind their shimmering shields.

"Well, they probably dangerous look at 'em," Mickey said and gestured towards the window.

"No, it's not that Mickey. Well not true they are rather dangerous, however that is not the problem. That out there is the main Chtonian battle fleet, each ship more than capable of incinerating a planet. That is as it should be, however what is worrying me, is their shields. They're equipped with Time Shields, which is not something they usually have," the Doctor said.

"Time shield, what's that," she interjected.

"A defence against manipulations in the time line. If something changes the timeline those aboard those ships won't be affected. It is a stand-off measure often employed by lesser races involved in some sort of war involving time manipulation," the Doctor explained.

"Lesser races... You're calling the race who made this and those a lesser race," Mickey said with a hint of righteous anger in his voice. She winced. She no longer had any illusions about the technological superiority of the Time Lords compared to humans especially after all her travels within the TARDIS.

The Doctor turned and for a moment she saw the intensity of her first doctor in his eyes. "Yes, Mickey, lesser races. Both the Humans and the Chtonians are millions of years behind in comparative evolution at this point. One day they'll evolve to something the Higher Races will respect. Maybe... Now those shields they're only a good defence if your enemies are time-travellers, who don't have full access to the Time Vortex... This is wrong there shouldn't be a struggle right now," the Doctor turned towards her with a worried look. The old doctor she thought would have been walking around almost manically going off somewhere anywhere, but the new one was different that way. Sometimes just sometimes he had the same energy, but in times like these he was more likely to stop and think a bit before dashing off.

"Let's go back to the TARDIS, I need to check something," he said and pulled out his sonic screwdriver and somehow commanded the transmat to shunt them back to their early spot just outside the TARDIS. The by now familiar disorientation of a teleportation set in then she was in front of her home. They walked inside, Mickey was obviously unhappy, she knew it hadn't been a good idea to bring him along. Something just told her bringing him along was wrong. It was intuition but that was all she needed to feel uneasy. It was intuition that had taken on her life's greatest adventure. It was intuition, talking and quick thinking that saved her life when it was needed, she had very little else to rely on.

Mickey was looking annoyed while the Doctor fiddled with the instruments of the TARDIS looking for something. "Aha," he suddenly said and gestured triumphantly towards the screen.

She after looking around and wondering for a moment walked over to see what he was going on about. It was a map of the stars with lines and strangely coloured blotches underneath it. Behind it all a stream of letters seemed to flow as well. "What is that supposed to show," she asked in confusion turning her head as if that would change anything.

"This, my pretty flower, shows us that someone or something is involved in some sort of massive time manipulation in this section of the Milky Way as you call it. There you see, someone has removed an entire race from space-time and there, several attempts to stunt the growth of another civilization. Someone is fighting across time, as I feared," he said and added, "My dear old girl let's strengthen your protection against outside manipulation."

He was talking to the TARDIS again. Other people, Mickey probably from the look on his face although that seemed to have been present since they left Earth, would think it eccentric. She thought it was rather charming if a bit funny.

"Now we're safe from these things inside the TARDIS, but we have to find out who is doing these crimes then stop them," the Doctor explained, when suddenly there was a feeling of cold dread in the ship and the TARDIS rumbled in protest against something.

The Doctor sprang into action, jumping from instrument to instrument. "Aha, aha there you are. Time travelling devices using warp drives... yes I see. Now where did you come from and where are you going," he babbled as he jumped around the console. She stepped out of the way knowing that she didn't understand enough about the TARDIS to get what he was talking about or help anyway.

"What are they doing Doctor," she asked after the display changed again.

"They're carving up the Chtonian empire planet by planet. Look there, they've just changed the history of that planet. No no no no no!" The doctor suddenly yelled.

"They destroyed them... They just made an entire race destroy itself. Murdered millions and all their descendants through time. Foolish meddling morons," he turned and gave her an intense look. "We must stop them and set things right," he explained then fell silent for a moment staring at her and Mickey. She immediately nodded just the thought of someone doing this sent shivers down her spine.

She knew that look on the Doctor's face. He didn't want to admit it, but it was in times like these the Doctor missed his own race. Missed someone to help him who had the knowledge and power to protect the universe. These were the moments she felt like she was letting him down. Jack would have been a help now she was sure. She had never really been much help. No, she had decided she mustn't think like that. She had done things. She decided to jump right into it. "What do we do?" she asked trying to be as enthusiastic as possible.

"Yeah," Mickey replied trying to sound like her it seemed.

"First of all we need to find out who the other guys are before we can figure out how to defeat them," the Doctor said. He went back to the TARDIS console with a look of focus. She knew what that meant. This might take a little while.

"Come on," she said and pulled Mickey away before he could hover over the Doctor's shoulder to see what he was doing, "There are still a lot of places in here I haven't shown you."

This was bad, he knew it. His two travelling companions didn't know, although maybe there had been a glint of suspicion in Rose's eyes. These kind of disruptions were bad in every way thinkable. Time wars were by definition nasty. It had occupied the majority of the Time Lords time preventing things like these. Now there was only him. He understood his predecessor's blunt almost manic nature, but he was different. He could brood, but there was a better option. Doing something about it all. The indications were on his screen. There one, two, three violent removals of Chtonian allies. Ah and finally they made their fatal mistake. The TARDIS had finally picked up their trail. He punched the activation switch. The dear old girl launched into time and space with good speed.

A few moments of travel later his dear Rose, unknowing heroine at large burst into the room followed by a more reluctant Mickey. "Doctor, did you find them?" she asked.

"Of course, the Doc did, why do you think we're flying," Mickey replied for him. He knew another thing about himself then. He hated nicknames... with a passion.

"The Doctor or just plain Doctor, not Doc, nothing else," he immediately retorted keeping his eyes on the display in front of him and manipulating the TARDIS' controls. Fascinatingly it seemed their new opponent wasn't heading for one specific point in time rather to a point within the chaos of the Time Vortex..

"We're right behind it now, everyone hang onto something things might get a bit bumpy," he said, seeing Rose immediately grabbing hold of something way before Mickey, he nearly grinned. He might consider Mickey's presence a bit, he had hoped to patch things up between Mickey and Rose, but it looked like it might be too much of a burden. Still he'd better focus on something else. There was a whopper of a job ahead of them. Finally the TARDIS swung onto the space time track of their quarry and it lead to a place in space but outside regular time.

"There we are, there is no getting away," he said and guided his ship onto the final approach. There was another powerful shudder and they had landed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Gambits**

"Where have we landed?" Mickey asked.

"Probably somewhere dangerous and exciting. I am guessing, we're gonna go meet the enemy right," Rose replied with an ease and experience that made him proud.

"Right you are," he said and headed for the door doing his best to look official. He opened the door and stepped outside with the feeling of Rose and Mickey clear behind him.

There was a series of noises which he recognized even before he lifted his eyes as being the charging noises of sonic disintegrators a common weapon in the 51st century. He looked up and saw several people dressed in the uniforms of the Time Agency. This was bad on a celestial scale. It made sense though. Humans sometimes that species was just so bloody annoying. Of course they had to have their war with the Chtonians they'd always had one. But with his race gone removed from time by the Time War they had escalated that war to encompass even time it seemed. The first Human-Chton war had been a long affair in the 52nd century. Now it seemed the Time Agency had decided to further human interests by taking it into time.

"Hold it right there," a familiar voice said. He looked up. Oh, time travel was sometimes such a mess. Rose and Mickey would be confused. A younger Jack Harkness, Captain and Agent of the Time Agency walked up next to the group of well-armed human time agents.

"Jack," Rose said in surprise then fell silent. She was getting smarter about the time travelling. Mickey looked surprised but didn't say anything. They had never explained Jack's absence, but then Mickey hadn't asked.

"Identify yourselves," Jack asked clearly in command and seemed grimmer than he had ever seen the human.

"I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler and that is Mickey Smith," he replied.

"Pleased to meet ya," Rose added and probably gave them one of her winning smiles.

"You've accessed a restricted Time Agency facility with your ship. You're under arrest under Article #5 of the Time Agency Code and the rules in general," Jack said and motioned for them to raise their hands.

"But you can't. We were following," Rose said, but Jack was already walking away. Rose ran forward obviously trying to reason with him.

He winced at what would come. There was a sharp stinging feeling and things went black as the air filled with the sound of the Humans' under mounted neural projectors firing. He had hoped to avoid getting shot at for now.

"Oh my bloody head," he moaned first thing. He felt like pointing that out as his eyes blinked again and again to catch a glimpse of the room around him. He saw the Doctor sitting looking at what looked suspiciously like a cell door. Rose was nowhere in sight.

"Where is Rose?" He asked hoping to get a reaction from the Doctor this time.

"I don't know. And they haven't separated us because of gender, in this age it is not considered an important difference. They might be interrogating her," the Doctor explained.

"What do we do now? Wait for someone to come pick us up?" he asked.

"Of course not, we're going to get out of here, get Rose and then we're going to stop this war," the Doctor said drawing out his sonic screwdriver, which as it wasn't a weapon the Time Agency had left the alien with.

The Doctor put the screwdriver as he called the device against the top of the door and the thing glowed blue for a while. He stopped adjusted it and repeated the exercise. It seemed that the alien wasn't exactly having an easy time with what ever the lock was. He looked around trying to ignore his headache.

"My god my head is bursting," she thought then realized she was unable to move her hands or feet. She immediately panicked and thrashed against the bonds before she could even see clearly.

"Lie still," the voice of Jack told her. It sounded less playful than she had ever heard it. He had been lost in their battle against the Daleks. This was probably a younger Jack from before she had met him over the battle torn skies of London. It was weird to think about, because he hadn't recognized her then.

"Who are you really?" he asked as she blinked her eyes clear and saw the uniform clad sharp looking Jack standing above her.

"The Doctor told you, I'm Rose Tyler. I'm a human, a time traveller," she said hoping that it wasn't somehow illegal to time travel if you were not a Time Agent.

"Don't tell me any lies, you're not human. I had your DNA tested. It is close to human but it's not human," he said.

"I am human I tell you. I swear. Born and raised in London," she protested. She guessed they were just misunderstanding the difference between her and them because of her being from earlier in Earth's history.

"Sure, now tell me, who are you working for?" he commanded touching her arm. She hated feeling unable to brush him off.

"No one, I am just a wanderer," she protested.

"We know where your ship came from? Did the Chtonians think we wouldn't attack any neo-human traitors?" he said. This so didn't sound like her Captain Jack. His eyes looked haunted. She had never seen him like this.

"I am not a mercenary or a traitor whats-ya-call-it for that matter. I don't have anything to do with your war or any other war for that matter," she replied angrily. Here they were trying to stop a horrendous war and suddenly she was strapped to a table being questioned by someone she considered a friend until a few months ago when he had supposedly died.

He looked at her for a moment then grinned, "Never mind then. I guess I'll have to find out another way." Jack walked away.

She lifted her head slightly ignoring the headache and nausea. The padded shackles were locked with high-tech automatic locks. The bed she was on was rather comfortable. However the head fixation gear lying unlocked next to her immediately made her more uncomfortable. She tried tearing at the shackles... but they wouldn't budge. She thrashed again looking around the otherwise bare white walled room. Wait a minute she thought where was the door. "Hey anybody, Jack, anyone!" she yelled. Her voice echoed around the room.

He walked away from the teleporter and went over to ask a glance over the shoulder of Nelly one of his fellow agents and very good looking girl. "So how is the sweet thing doing?"

"She started whimpering immediately after you left," Nelly replied.

"The alien in holding seems to be trying to get out with some sort of device," Frank another nice person said from his console.

"Let him, that door is only there to make them think there is a door and another way out of the cell," he replied.

"Group two has just reported in. Captain Barnard is shocked. He can't seem to get the door open no matter how ancient the vehicle looks. He is pretty sure however from the scans that it is highly advanced and never seen before technology," Frank continued.

"Honey," he said and put a hand on Frank's shoulders. "Tell Barnard not to bother. We can't spend all our time on the intruders. We can deal with them, he can just go ahead and take out the next target on the list."

"Yup," Frank said and padded his hand. He nodded and headed over to M'Chelk, who was observing the female through the observation viewscreen.

"M'Chelk," he said to the Brownish mouthless alien.

_I hear you Jack Harkness, _M'Chelk replied telepathically. The H'Fahni were a highly psionic race allied with the Time Agency.

"Why did you want this one out of the entire group brought in for questioning," he asked.

_The alien had telepathic defences and the man knew very little of value except that he stems from the 21st century as far as my surface scan could determine. This one however is a bit more interesting, many languages have passed through its brain already and someone has blocked out a huge part of its memories,_ M'Chelk explained.

"Errhm, I am pretty sure it's a she, but alright. Can you remove the block and read those memories? They followed the insertion team in here, I want to know if the Chtonians have gotten wise and gotten more powerful time travelling devices. None of us have any idea about that ship they used to get here," he explained.

_I will deep scan the female first and try to see if I can remove the memory block. It looks like it is possible. Fortunately the information wasn't erased then I wouldn't be able to recover it,_ M'Chelk replied and activated the teleporter to end up inside the interrogation room.

He watched with grim determination as the girl struggled against getting her head strapped down and the gag that would keep her from choking on her tongue. He hated interrogations, they always made him feel queasy. But this was absolutely required. That ship had come in here, inside a fortress outside of time a place that the Agency believed unreachable. That was impossible for all their known enemies. Command would want to know everything about their prisoners. He turned and headed away as the crying girl inside started thrashing from the torturous process of having her mind forced open. He felt horrible on her behalf.

"Something is wrong," the Doctor said after having tried unsuccessfully to open the door for nearly half an hour.

"You think. I am locked in a cell, we have no idea where Rose is and your little glow rod can't help either," he said.

"Ah hello Mickey the idiot. First of all this is a sonic screwdriver not a rod... Now quiet please I am trying to think," the Doctor fired back. The doctor spent time looking at the door then turned around and studied their cell.

"Clever really very clever, occupational therapy, distraction and for most people impossible to escape," the Doctor said and fiddled with his sonic screwdriver then raised it in the air and disappeared in a white glinting flash.

"Oi," he yelled and looked around in confusion. A moment passed then an alarm started blearing in the cell.

"Where did he go," Nelly yelled and looked over at Frank who was quickly calling up the transmat logs. He ran in from dictating his latest mission report.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The alien figured out that the door was non-functional and next I looked he had somehow remotely activated the transmat. He is out somewhere on the base," Nelly explained.

"Frank, get him on sensors. The scan from their capture indicated a binary vascular system, that ought to be unusual enough for you to find him," he ordered and took the strap off his sonic disintegrator holster.

He went over and looked into the interrogation room, where M'Chelk was still working. He pressed the communication stud on his bracelet and addressed his friend. "M'Chelk, watch out for any sudden transmat activity, we have a prisoner loose on the base... Any progress," he asked as the girl seemed to convulse like an epileptic.

_I will and yes there is great progress. This one is not trained to resist mental interrogation. The group she is a part of seems to be a collective of travellers and meddlers based out of the 21st Century Earth using the alien with them and his timeship for transport. They seem to have confronted many dangers and Jack... It seems they've met an older you, who helped them. They were also recently on Eridani IV, I believe they intend to meddle in the conflict according to the patterns seen in this one's memories. A full and exhaustive report can be filled out later, however I can tell you that this one possesses a key which allows her access to their ship their TARDIS... And Jack this ship is transdimensional and its owner claims to be one of the Time Lords the only survivor,_ M'Chelk explained.

"And the memory block," he asked feeling familiar exhilaration at discovering the unknown, while hearing Frank yelling, "I found him," in the background.

_I will now make my first attempt on it. It seems to be there to prevent anyone even this female from seeing how the self-proclaimed Time Lord defeated the last of the Daleks,_ M'Chelk explained.

"Go ahead," he said and turned back towards Frank wondering how and why a 21st century human group dealt with the Daleks, which made even him shudder even if they had disappeared. However things were getting interesting, Time Lords, transdimensional ships and Daleks, they were dealing with the stuff of legend all of a sudden.

"I found him, he is tinkering with some panel in level 3, subsection 42," Frank explained as he leaned in.

"Shut off the power to that area quick," he commanded as he realized what system was in that section.

But before Frank could do anything, Nelly yelled, "we lost the other one."

"Forget about it," he skidded away ran up to a panel and pulled it off. His eyes had to dash around trying to find the right wire then he just fast drew his disintegrator and removed the entire computer brain of the transmat just as it was preparing for another transport.

Mickey was complaining next to him, but he was tuning him out. He was trying to get the transmat of this place to move all the Time Agents into his cell not really caring how high they would stack. He adjusted his screwdriver mentally and was ready to move them, when the transmat circuit went dead. "Clever, very clever Jack," he said.

"Oi I'm talking to you," Mickey said.

"Listen Mickey don't make me regret bringing you along. Listen we've got too leave, they're bound to come looking for us soon... Damn Rose has a TARDIS key," he said and walked off hoping the Londoner would follow him but close to no longer caring.

"Where are we going," Mickey asked.

"We're going to find some way to free Rose, but first I need to visit the TARDIS and reset the security until we get Rose back," he explained.

"Visit the TARDIS! Visit the TARDIS! We're in a place filled with people with guns that can knock us unconscious within a second," Mickey complained.

"Never mind those it's the disintegrators you should worry about," he commented with a grin. Mickey was unnerved already, it couldn't get much worse anyway. Mickey stopped in his tracks. "Keep up or you'll see those weapons in action," he called out while continuing to adjust his sonic screwdriver and make it shut off the internal sensors around them.

"Frank get them back on sensors, where are they going?" he yelled when there was a strange bump. He turned around and looked at the viewscreen for the interrogation room. M'Chelk was in there still with the human girl. The large alien was bumping his head against the walls. Almost in a panic he activated the communicator. "M'Chelk what is going on? Can I help you? What is wrong?" he yelled but his friend just shook his head before pounding it against the wall again hard enough to draw blood. He couldn't enter the room without blowing away the viewscreen. He just managed to draw his gun again before there was a blinding pain in his head. Frank and Nelly's voices joined his in a chorus of screams as he was psychically attacked.

He had no idea how long he lay there filled with pain before it abruptly cut off. He barely got back off the floor and stared into the interrogation room. M'Chelk, a good friend and fellow agent, lay on the floor apparently without his head which was shattered around the room in small gobs. "What the hell happened?" he mumbled and tried to get back up. He felt rather wobbly as he saw M'Chelk's body was holding its gun in its hand. He stared at the crying girl. Was it something she had done, was it what ever had been hidden behind that memory block or was it another trick performed by the escaped prisoners.

"I'll find out about M'Chelk, you guys find the prisoners and get the rest of the team to capture them. And be careful they are to be taken seriously," he said before disintegrating the viewscreen and stepping into the room with the whimpering girl. He flicked the switch on his gun, turned and reintegrated the wall.

"Please Jack, stop it, I am telling the truth stop it from hurting me," the girl was crying in a tone that nearly broke his heart, but looking at good gentle M'Chelk who had committed suicide from reading this girl's thoughts he put his pity out of mind and replaced it with determination.

"What happened to him? What did you do?" he nearly yelled and pressed his gun against the chin of the struggling girl, but she was too distraught to even speak to him. He noticed that she seemed to be both pale and clammy. There was a beep from his communicator.

"Yes," he said.

"Jack, the alien has been at it again. The computer has been infiltrated, they don't show on sensors any more," Frank's voice asked. Next to him the girl thrashed against her restraints again.

He thought for a moment, "Right tell Chris and Ross to hide near their ship where ever they can get off a good shot from. When they show up and they will its their only resource stun them and if they resists set the sonics to bone breaking."

"Roger," Frank replied and his voice cut off.

"Why are you doing this... We just wanted to stop your war, you're damaging the timeline. You shouldn't meddle with time," the girl choked out slowly stopping her crying.

"Aha, so you're not just travellers are you? What makes you think you have the right to do this to meddle? We represent the Time Agency, we're preventing a disaster by doing this. If we don't destroy the Chtonians in that sector of space then they'll enter into a war against mankind. It'll cost billions of lives and could even mean the end of the Time Agency. We can't let that happen," he said, but wondered if he meant it. They were killing millions if not billions themselves.

"You're no better right now," the girl said in a pained voice then passed out.

He looked at her again then said out into the room, "Computer confirm health condition of the prisoner."

A white light shone across the girl's body then the machine's voice said, "The prisoner is suffering from several non-hazardous nervous system disruptions caused by severe telepathic interrogation. Warning prisoner's DNA doesn't not match DNA identified at capture."

"Huh," he said and looked at the girl again.

"Computer explain DNA mismatch," he asked already prepared for an unhelpful answer.

"Unable to comply," it immediately said. Before he could ask more the alarms all went off then died along with the lights. He turned and disintegrated the wall find the room beyond equally dark.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Midgame**

"What did you do?" Mickey asked. He didn't have much time to explain.

"Mickey, if all you're gonna do is stand around and ask me questions about everything then what use are you. Now just do as I tell you. Pull those yellow wires out and be careful not to get the liquid inside on you," he said and dashed over the last remaining console with power. He had decided a slight detour to the engine room before visiting the TARDIS was in order. Now the playing field was increasingly being levelled.

He pushed in the codes, ancient Dalek ones as this place was obviously originally one of the Dalek's bases before the humans had managed to find it. A small outpost capable of hiding outside of time. Unreachable unless of course you were a Time Lord. The perfect staging point for war. He finished his little surprise then aimed his sonic screwdriver at the console and watched as it fried. He turned to find Mickey standing next to the properly destroyed and discarded wires. "Good, now to visit the TARDIS," he said and dashed off.

"This guy is very clever," he mused as around him his torch showed both Frank and Nelly arming themselves in their combat gear.

"Should we get the power up first," Nelly asked.

"Good idea, I want you and Frank... together to go the engine room, but watch out for traps this alien has a devious mind," he suggested.

"And you?" Frank asked over the whine of a charging plasma pulse rifle.

"I will help with the hunt and kill... Wait a minute, hah I have a better idea. Our assault ship. It has both a transmat and sensors Nelly will go there, get a lock on them and transport them back to their cell. No more running around blind risking a firefight," he said.

"Brilliant," Nelly said and went off.

"Frank you and I are on sweep duty now. We will go from compartment to compartment check 'em then seal 'em until we corner them," he said. They went off.

He glanced around the corner, his eyes had adapted to the darkness. Mickey was fair way back making sure they weren't getting jumped from behind. He could hear them, feel them, two humans close-by, hiding waiting to jump them. However given his rather brilliant mind he had a rather good idea about what to do. He carefully and as soundlessly connected the screwdriver to the wiring of overhead lights, switched the lights off and charged them full of ions. He picked up the loose piece of panel at his feet. The lights started to glow every so slightly from the charge. There was a slight hum. He threw the piece as hard as possible and faced away. There was a massive light flash.

"Arrgh my eyes," he heard the humans yell. He turned, ran forward and grabbed the first one's gun from the floor. He pointed the neural projector towards the other one fired then back to the first one and fired again. To satisfying thumps later he called, "Mickey, come on, the way is free." He went over to pick up the other rifle.

Mickey ran into the room. He made out the two bodies lying on the floor, "Oi mate did you kill 'em."

He let out a long suffering sigh, "Mickey, these are disintegrator rifles, if I had used them to kill there would've been just dust." He turned towards the TARDIS and walked inside putting the second rifle down just inside.

"Now, we've been back. Can we go look for Rose?" Mickey remained at the door tapping his foot impatiently. He made a few adjustments to the TARDIS and asked the old girl to ignore Rose's key until he rescinded the order. He looked at the sensor display taking another better look at the base. There was a life sign that matched the time/space resonance of Rose Tyler three decks up.

He picked up the rifle, made the adjustments he wanted then, walked over and handed it to Mickey. "This trigger fires the neural projector, that one the disintegrator, so don't use it. I've set it to boost the neural projector at the cost of the power cell of the disintegrator. That way you'll just have to hit the general area to win. I know, you know point and click from your games so just think of it like that. Thankfully you can't kill anyone unless you use the disintegrator. Now to go pick up Rose."

Mickey apparently manned himself up, took better hold of the gun and nodded to himself. He took his gun and followed the human back out, making sure the door locked behind with only a thought.

"Anything yet Nelly," he whispered into his com-bracelet.

"Nope, Jack, the ship is having trouble getting through the internal armour, but I do know one thing. The engines are still running at full power, so I guess we could restore power," her voice replied.

"Anything from Chris and Ross," Frank asked a bit nervously.

"Nothing, they're not responding to my calls," Nelly answered.

"Bloody hell, ok, Nelly baby, keep the doors to the ship locked. If you loose touch with Frank and I, then get out, fetch Barnard or call HQ for support, complete communication silence be damned," he commanded.

"Sure, Jack," Nelly replied although he heard a tone of her not being happy stuck on the ship. They were approaching the ready room where the strange blue box had appeared. He glanced down at the short range sensor, there was two human sensor echoes in front of them. He wavered the torch mounted on his rifle down and saw the knocked out bodies of Chris and Ross on the ground.

"Damn they've got them," Frank said. He turned and looked at the timeship that had materialized in the room. It was still there. Which meant...

"You can say that again, we've got to go back up. They've got their guns, a clear way to their ship, so all they're missing is the last prisoner," he explained and rapidly turned around. "Come on," he said and set off running as fast as he could in the dark. Frank pounded along behind him.

They swung a corner and found the tight duct with ladders leading up to the decks above. He let Frank go first for multiple reasons, but mostly to keep an eye out for their enemies. They climbed up the two floors and headed onto the command deck. "Be careful," he whispered.

There was a click next to them, a panel fell open. Frank fired his disintegrator. The entire wall evaporated into dust revealing nothing. "Feeling Jump..." he started saying but a white bolt hit Frank in the side. He dropped and rolled. He was too late they were ahead of him in the corridor leading into the command and control room next to their offices. Frank was down. He huddled in the alcove as another few white bolts flew by. Only the apparent mercy of his enemies kept them from simply disintegrating him.

He reached down, feeling a bit sweaty and activated his connection to Nelly and whispered, "Nelly, can you transmat the girl, the remaining prisoner out of here and then me?".

"Quick please," he whispered before she could answer as another neural energy bolt wizzed by.

Mickey covered the dim corridor keeping Jack pinned. He turned and looked around. They had refurbished the Dalek command center extensively. He spotted the massive hole in the wall. He walked closer until he spotted her. Rose lying unconscious and apparently shackled like an animal on a table. She looked horrible and the very thought of an interrogation made his synapses run white-hot with anger. Then he spotted an unexpected H'Fahni corpse on the floor. It had apparently committed suicide. "Now what are you doing here and what happened to you," he mused while reaching for his screwdriver to undo Rose's shackles then suddenly there was a white light and she disappeared out of his grasp again.

"Bloody hell," he cursed and turned around. He programmed his screwdriver to give off a high frequency and activated it. Somewhere deep in the station the noise would trigger his program, his surprise. Jack was going to leave on his ship, so he might as well take away the hiding place outside time that was probably the reason the Chtonians could only sit at Eridani awaiting their fate.

"Mickey, we're leaving," he said, internally noting how much he sounded like his more intense predecessor at the moment. It seemed they shared that trait the intensity when they got upset.

"What about Rose," Mickey asked after firing another shot down the corridor.

"They took her and Jack is also leaving. They'll run for home and take her along," he said while calmly walking out into the corridor. There was another white energy flash in the alcove Jack had hidden in. He intended to let him retrieve his comrades so he just calmly continued on towards the shaft they had used to ascend to this level Mickey following along still looking around in paranoia. However he had deduced the truth. They would soon be the only ones left on this station.

"Command and Barnard is going to have my hide for losing control of this place," he said.

"It's worse than that Jack my boy," Nelly replied and pointed at one of the sensors. The engine which they had never managed to understand was rapidly increasing its output without apparently venting any of its heat into space. The station, their precious base for their operation would go up in less than ten minutes.

"Quick lock on to Frank, Ross and Chris, take them out of there," he said noting that they still didn't have the alien and his friend on sensors although he had no idea why maybe another manipulation or trick. They should never have relied so much on the Dalek base for protection and services. Now someone who understood it better had used it against them.

"I will have them out in less time than that," Nelly said.

"Good, I'll fire up the engines and head for our fallback position. Once we're in real time I'll set off the beacon and call Barnard to us," he explained.

"We have to watch out, that alien and his ally will be coming for us," Nelly said.

"With certainty he wants the girl and to stop us. We have to set a trap for him," he said and immediately started thinking about their options, while setting up the rather convoluted time drive system. He had to focus for a while. Time travel was not an easy effortless affair for their ship.

They got into the room they had landed in as the first lurches of the station warned them off its impending doom. The unconscious Time Agents were gone. They were going to be facing them again, unless he could somehow gain an advantage and bargain for the return of Rose and the end of this war. He needed something that would help. There was the option of fetching the Chtonians and set them on track towards their enemies, but Rose would not approve of being the cause for escalating a war.

"Oi, Doctor, what is happening to this place," Mickey asked and looked around in confusion.

"I set it to explode on my signal, I've given that signal. Now let's get on the TARDIS and follow Jack before we lose them and Rose in the timestream," he said and walked into the console room of his dear ship. Mickey closed the door and went up next to him keeping the gun apparently. He remembered he had thrown his away somewhere in the control room oh well he didn't much approve of weapons anyway. His thoughts continued as he carefully set the TARDIS up to follow the departing Time Agents. There had to be a way end this war between the Humans and the Chtonians. No, he was missing the point again. It was not about the Humans and the Chtonians. It was all about a change in time. The Time Agency acted without the altruism he had expected it to wield. That meant there was a change somewhere. A rotten apple of some kind. That was what he should focus on... However rescuing Rose was first on his agenda.

Ah Jack was trying to be clever. Ducking and weaving through time heading back and forward, through space and back again. It was a good bit of flying for a human, but to a Time Lord in a TARDIS it was rather like an ant tap-dancing on the shoe of a god. He waited patiently until his future friend believed he had shaken him off then set the TARDIS down on Forneth minutes before the humans would arrive.

That alien in his ship was very very good at piloting his strange blue box. For a while he was afraid, it would follow them again. But they finally shook them off and headed for their secondary fallback on Forneth. He activated the signal to alert Barnard to divert in their direction hoping the other team lead by the operation leader wouldn't jump into what ever white hot cloud of plasma would replace their former base.

Behind him the girl groaned and stirred. "Don't make any sudden moves," Nelly said and held her gun under the nose of the obviously dangerous neo-human. He still had the memories of M'Chelk's fresh corpse in his mind.

"When and where am I?" the girl asked. She was obviously not scared witless by her situation even if her tears reddened eyes betrayed her earlier breakdown.

"You're our prisoner for now. The alien you travel with, is he really a Time Lord?" Nelly asked.

"Yeah, his name is the Doctor," the girl replied. He recalled that M'Chelk had named her Rose, a nice name really.

"Okay, Rose listen cutie. You're interfering with a legitimate Time Agency operation. You're obviously humanish, so you should be on our side. Our war with the Chtonians is legitimate. They fired first," he said not mentioning that they would not fire first for another 50 years and that the Agency had decided not to wait for it to do so.

The girl looked at him, her expressive face revealing her distrust of him still it was also obvious she was listening. "Now please Rose, I am sorry for the interrogation, but we really need to understand more about your friend the Doctor. He blew up our base endangering all our lives even yours. So please tell me about him," he asked putting on his most endearing smile and his best sincere look.

"Stop that Jack, you're embarrassing yourself. I won't doubt the Doctor ever. He will come for me and you won't be able to stop him. Just listen to him instead of fighting destiny. He knows more about time and space than your entire agency put together," she said and he could see in her eyes she believed her own words fully.

There was an insistent beeping from the flight computer. He grabbed the controls and started guiding them in for the atmosphere landing and said, "Nelly sweetheart, make sure the message goes out to Barnard correctly."

Rose felt her head spinning. She had been on some rough trips with the Doctor but getting her mind invaded by an alien outdid even what Cassandra had done to her. She felt like puking, but forced herself to remain focused. She heard Jack instruct his friend and saw the woman's eyes focus on a nearby panel, while the gun pointed at her trailed off target. It was her chance unshackled and her captors distracted. If she could grab it she could pressure her way out. Sure she would never use it, but this Jack wouldn't know.

She lunged forward wildly grabbing the gun. However the female agent Nelly had a wise-like grip on the weapon. She pried at her grip. Jack was already turning around, yelling something. She pulled as hard as she could making sure the gun wasn't pointing at anyone. The other woman got out of her chair as they struggled. Suddenly the Agent kicked her hard in her stomach sending her back. She watched as the woman lowered her gun. She lunged sideways. The gun fired.

"No!" Jack yelled then there was a massive thundering boom and wind whirled around them. The ship started to spin and she got flung backwards. Alerts, noises and the intense rush of the wind filled the air. Nelly disappeared like she had gotten sucked out of a hole. The light of the room changed. There really was a hole in the ship. She was sliding towards it. Desperately she grabbed for a nearby pole on which a chair was mounted, while her feet swung around the floor towards the hole..

Jack turned around, his eyes full of fury and hurt he commanded, "Ship emergency eject crew." A strange blob of thick green plastic like goo covered Jack before he disappeared through the roof along with his seat. Behind her the three unconscious agents strapped in their seats did the same. The vehicle started to spin out of control.

She fought with all her strength trying to get into the seat and copy his action. She couldn't she wasn't strong enough to fight the wind and turbulence. Finally the wind seemed to slow down, but she never managed to get into the seat.

"So we just wait for them here. That is not much of a plan," Mickey said.

"Not entirely, what we want here Mickey is to establish a dialogue. Make them understand that if they don't give back Rose I'll make them understand why even monsters fear me," he replied. They both heard the shock wave as the ship circled in towards landing on the cleared landing strip next to what looked like an abandoned mining colony in the middle of a verdant jungle. The animal noises disappeared in a fearful hush. He easily followed the rapid craft with his eyes, while Mickey seemed to look around at random. Then suddenly as it made its final way towards the landing strip the ship lurched continuing forward at full speed as objects and even if his eyes worked correctly a human body was flung from the craft.

"What is happening?" Mickey asked having also spotted the problem.

He wished with all his being that his dear young friend wasn't the one hurtling towards the jungle below. He didn't know what he would do if that was the case. The ship continued now clearly out of control. Then the ship deluged three blobs of green, a classical Earth emergency eject system he realized. The ship soared past them with its engines dying before disappearing into the jungle, there was a large thunderous boom.

"Come on, we need to see who made it out alive," he yelled as he ran all he could towards the far end of the landing strip. Mickey slightly wide eyed followed as best he could.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: End game**

The doctor stopped, disappointment then fear spreading on his face as they reached Jack and the other three still unconscious agents. Jack stood in the grass brandishing his gun. "Stop right there," Jack said. The man, he had only known as almost happy-go-lucky when he met him, had an angry expression on his face. He had seen expressions like these before down at the pub just moments before a brawl.

The Doctor stopped and eyed the Time agent seeming to size the depth of his anger. "Jack, listen, this has all gotten out of hand. Can we help with anything?" the Doctor asked obviously shocking the man.

"What? Out of hand, are you insane? It is too late for your help. Nelly is dead, no one could survive a fall like that," the black haired man rambled staring the direction where a humanoid figure had fallen into the jungle from the crashing space ship. Still a weight lifted from his heart for a moment until he realized that Rose wasn't amongst those ejected safely by the space ship. He immediately mirrored the Doctor in staring horrified in the direction of the smoke and dust plume rising from the jungle beyond the other end of the landing strip.

Jack said, "she tried to grab Nelly's gun. It went off disintegrating the whole side of our ship."

"And did you even try to help her. Rose knew nothing about your war. We only wanted you to stop. You captured her, tortured her. Oh, don't try to deny it. There is only one use for a H'Fahni in a room with a tied down prisoner. Of course she would try to escape, but when she fought back... you didn't even have decency to help her, did you?" the Doctor was subjecting Jack to a glare and the man was seemingly unable to look him in the eye.

"Thought as much, Rose is from the 21st century Jack, she had no idea about how to eject from a 51st century space ship and you offered her no help. No, you had to be petty. Fine, if she is dead, you've killed another innocent," the Doctor thundered and took a threatening step towards the Time Agent.

There was a thump and a bit of grass exploded in front of the Doctor. "I have the gun," Jack said and he remembered having dropped his rifle next to the TARDIS as he saw the space ship with Rose aboard crash. "And I haven't killed a single innocent person to date," Jack answered.

"Really, oh boy are you deluded. I've registered no less than 8 manipulation of the time stream leading to the death of untold millions. What the hell has the Time Agency come to these days. The Agency I knew was dedicated to the upholding of the correct flow of time and space not the wholesale slaughter of billions by manipulating their history to make them destroy themselves in unnatural wars or accidents which they can't defend against. Tell me Jack when did that change," the Doctor asked.

Jack looked really uncomfortable now. "I don't like it either, but if we don't stop the Chtonians they'll cause a war within a hundred years that will mean the end of the Time Agency. That's why we were ordered by command to go on a deep undercover mission to weaken the Chtonian Empire's hold on this entire sector and there by ensure that the war won't happen," Jack explained.

"But you've failed. The Chtonians have connections with time travellers as well. They've found out about your sick little plan and now they've amassed their main fleet in Eridani equipped them with Time Shields and if I am not wrong they're probably headed towards Time Agency HQ on Mars as we speak. You've stopped nothing. The war is still coming and for that a lot of innocent people had to die," the Doctor replied. He could barely himself comprehend the monstrosity of killing a people an entire race and it seemed somehow it was only dawning on Jack now as well.

"All for nothing. It can't be, you have to be lying. It can't have been wrong. All those dead... haunting me, unending bad karma," Jack seemed to bend forward and gasped for air as if unable to process it. He was sure he could see tears dropping into the grass. After a few moment he sank into the grass seemingly unable to keep himself up.

"What happened?" he whispered to the Doctor.

"Jack is a sensitive guy. His mind is trying to cope having to face all those he has killed," the Doctor replied.

"Why didn't it bother him before," he mumbled.

The Doctor grabbed him and gave him an intense scare for a few seconds. "Brilliant Mickey, of course that is it." His expression grew dark again and he grimly turned to face in the direction. "But first Rose." He ran off again. It seemed there was a good reason for Rose staying in shape. There was a lot of running when travelling with the TARDIS.

The trip into the jungle seemed frenetic and more than a little dangerous once it occurred to him that they were rushing through plants and animals all of which could kill him maybe even by touch. The Doctor seemed undisturbed as they powered on. They came upon a patch of tall trees and a clearing made by the still intact looking ship. There was a faint bleeping from some mechanism inside the space ship. It looked weird he realized as he approached. It had holes in the top from the ejection seats and dents which he would rather associate with a banged up car. "Stay back for a moment," the Doctor said and went in alone. He pressed a button like he knew all about this model of space ship and went inside the door that had just slid halfway open then gotten stuck on a dent.

A minute passed and the bleeping noise disappeared. There was a loud whine as the engine went from emitting a super sonic whine to one he could actually hear. Then it too died. "It is safe," a distracted sounding Doctor called out. He ran up and ducked into the darkness of the cabin. It was smaller than expected really only one room all in all not at all like the TARDIS. He looked around there, was extensive damage, a lack of chairs except two and a massive hole in the side opposite the door. But what there wasn't, was a single sign of Rose.

"Where is she?" he asked looking around.

The doctor sounded heartbroken when he explained, "she was probably thrown through the wind shield, something heavy went that way."

He swallowed a lump in his throat and decided reluctantly to go outside. He didn't want to think it, but it sure looked like Rose had been killed. Jackie had been right, it was not safe. It was reckless. He decided to seriously consider asking to go home again. He looked around finding small bits of debris and a large chair in the undergrowth but no Rose, no tracks nothing else indicating that she was around. He went further and further away, still finding nothing. "Doctor, she is not here," he yelled.

The rush of air suddenly stopped, there was a strange hum and then silence. "Don't move," a voice told her. She dared opening her eyes, while she realized she was no longer clutching a steel post for dear life. She was in another space ship much like the one she had just been crashing with surrounded by 5 humans and an alien just like the one that had tortured her only thinner. Two of the black armoured uniformed Time Agents were pointing rifles at her, while the alien behind her regarded her with its black glistening eyes.

"Listen, I..." she started but felt stumped for a moment trying to puzzle out her situation. She was in a space ship another one that meant teleportation. She was a prisoner again. These people weren't to be trusted just yet, but being obnoxious would be dangerous.

"What is she thinking, Li'Rane," the voice from before asked.

"Oi, get out of my head. I am the only one allowed in there," she protested.

_I have some difficulty reading her thoughts. Ah there we are, she seem to be confused by her situation. She was aboard the crashing ship. Jack and the others except Lieutenant Nelly Anders got away. The Lieutenant can possibly be counted as a casualty. This one caused a commotion and a disintegrator fired within the ship. It would also seem that the other prisoners escaped and are the entire reason for the destruction of our precious base_, a telepathic voice declared in her head and probably everyone else's in the ship. She wondered if telepathy worked like either talking to one person or all. Still she wanted the alien out of her mind.

"Damn it, this is unacceptable. Land now, we will pick up Jack and his team, ensure the safety of our base then set about completing our mission," the voice said again. She turned to lie on her bum and look up at the speaker. He was an older man, black haired with grey hairs peppering the hair. He was strongly built and had the look of determination in his eyes. She had seen a look like that a few times before while travelling with the Doctor, usually on men absolutely set on doing something without any regards for any one or anything like the leader of the Slitheen or the creepy Editor on Satellite Five.

"What about her," one of the other agents equally gruff asked.

"I don't know, she is obviously dangerous. We're not equipped or ordered to keep prisoners. She is also responsible for the death of an agent. I am inclined to just execute her," the leader explained.

"Please no, it wasn't my fault. I just ducked. She tried to shoot me," she explained.

_It speaks the truth,_ the brownish mouthless alien said. The other agents kept looking at her with intent however.

_Shouldn't we just be rid of her, they would be easier to control if they get their pound of flesh_, another voice replied telepathically. It was weird how that sounded like a private conversation she thought to herself.

_True, however my mate has disappeared and this one was near him when it happened. He told me, he had found something of interest in her mind before we left. I do not sense him below us. You'll be lenient Barnard. I will question her for my own purposes,_ the voice she knew as the alien's replied.

_As you command_, the guy replied mentally sounding just like the guy who spoke and who was apparently named Barnard.

"However we do not have all the details and operational laws demand we follow due process even under these circumstances. Agent Echolls set us down please," Barnard said.

"Why did I hear their mental communication?" she wondered then thought, "and why doesn't the mind reading alien know?" Confused she looked on as they sank towards the planet in a vertical descent.

He looked up as soon as he sensed it. A time displaced object descending through the atmosphere. It would seem the other Time Agents were arriving. He focused on the TARDIS and through his constant connection with it he asked it to kindly lock the doors. It was a meagre hope but Rose seemed to have disappeared from the crash site. Maybe just maybe the other team had tried to rescue what they must have thought was their friends in mortal danger and teleported her out. Maybe it was just a false hope, but he didn't mind a hope to alight the bleakness of his thoughts. "Mickey, come on, we have company coming. Let's go see them," he said and headed of a brisk walking pace, while looking in the direction the ship would come from.

They walked for a few moments before Mickey asked, "What about Rose?"

"I believe that might be answered by our arriving friends," he answered just as they popped out of the undergrowth and saw Jack surrounded by his buddies at the other end as well as a ship slowly hovering down from the sky. He changed course ever so slightly and opted to head for the ship first. They were unarmed and outnumbered but they had right, ethics, moral and intelligence on their side so they were vastly better off.

The ship barely set down before he felt it. It had been faintly there with Jack, but rapidly disappearing. There was a powerful psionic presence in the ether and it was clearly coming from inside the ship. It was a good while since he had met a powerful one like this, could it be another H'Fahni, a rare species at the best of times... Oh of course now he understood everything.

They had sprayed her hands with a chemical and now they were wrapped in a white cuff like foam structure that she couldn't even budge but which felt warm and soft against her skin. "Sir, it's them the prisoners her companions," one of the agents said. Her heart almost skipped a beat with happiness. Her doctor hadn't been thrown off. He was here back for her back to stop these cold hearted people from killing more people. She heard several weapons heat up with a high pitched whine and suddenly changed her opinion. She wanted the Doctor and Mickey safe. She might be able to get away alone. Her luck seemed strong anyway if she could just forget the buzz in her head and the memories of her earlier torturous interrogation.

"Okay people, look alive, standard dispersal pattern when we step out. Watch your firing arcs. We'll surround them and subdue them. This time we won't let them wake up before we need them to," Barnard said and with a glimmer all the agents disappeared as the transmat process ran.

However strangely enough they immediately reappeared looking rather confused. "What?" Barnard said and looked at the controls he had just activated. She smiled a bit. The Doctor was really good with transmats.

"It's him," the man next to Barnard pointed out the windshield towards the Doctor standing with a smile and his sonic screwdriver in his hand. She felt like cheering but given her company she decided against it. She couldn't stop a rather cheeky smile though.

Barnard flicked a switch and spoke, "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to the H'Fahni you have aboard. If you'll be reasonable, I will allow you to teleport out here so we can talk," the Doctor's voice explained over the internal speakers.

Barnard looked over his shoulder then said, "Alright, we're coming out. Both sides will refrain from hostilities. However we will keep your companion in here under guard."

"No problem," the Doctor replied. She hoped he wasn't betting on her getting free and escaping on her own. The chemical cuffs still weren't budging.

The agents and the alien disappeared leaving Barnard's pilot behind. Unconcerned with her he focused on what was going-on outside. She glanced around and spotted their first mistake. They had left the cuff chemical spray on the floor close to her. She studied it looking to see if it had some kind of switch that might spray a removal chemical.

Mickey nervously watched a group of armoured people, looking a lot more like battle hardened soldiers than the ones with Jack, appeared below the equally menacing hovering space ship. They encircled them. There was an alien with a flat brown face, no mouth and black eyes. It remained standing at a distance underneath the space ship. That had to be the H'Fahni the Doctor had mentioned unless it was some kind of title like Captain or something. "I am addressing you under peaceful banner as proclaimed the Eternity treaty. I am the Doctor, Time Lord, you have made multiple infractions against the consistence of the Time Line as well as severely damaging the development or existence of several races against the code agreed upon in the Eternity treaty. How do you plead, H'Fahni," the Doctor said with authority as if he had some kind of power to back up his accusations.

It was the oldest agent that replied, "All actions we have taken have been officially sanctioned by the Time Agency and are in the best interest of the Agency and Humanity. No alien can make me doubt that and no outdated treaty made by aloof or long dead races interests me."

"Your manipulations of these apes doesn't impress me, H'Fahni. Your race was warned. Your destiny is set in the Time Line. You are not allowed to change it. Is this an officially sanctioned act by your race? Should the Time Lords intervene and remove your race from the universe to protect it? We have done it before. We have the means, do you want that?" the Doctor threatened. He held his tongue and tried not to look surprised. Wasn't the Doctor the last one?

_The Time Lords are no more. I will not accept your judgement. You are puny compared to me and I have already sacrificed too much to stop now. I will have my race secured against the horrors that the future will bring. I do not care if the Humans and Chtonians destroy each other along the way. The less of them the better. I have made these pathetic fools fight the battles of my races. As the stupid apes they are I've lead them around and used them. They think they are on a mission for their agency but there is no such mission. That station was a find of my mate. Together we joined with the pathetic agency and took these their agents as our pets and used them to murder billions,_ a telepathic voice yelled triumphantly in his head causing him to yelp in surprise.

"I will stop you," the Doctor said and held up his screwdriver. He heard a whine that seemed to resonate with his ears causing him great pain. The other humans the agents stumbled around equally in pain. Then suddenly they stiffened and recovered looking even colder and stone faced than before, while he could barely stand.

_My control is stronger than you pathetic disruption. If I recall my legends correctly not even Time Lords are immune to disintegration. We might have to fire a few times, but this should be a simple matter. Now Time Lord it is time to_, the telepathic voice was suddenly cut off as the ship free fell on top of the alien with a moist splat. He had to look away with a wince. All the Time Agents toppled over like they were puppets with their strings cut.

The pilot had heard the hiss of the chemical spraying on her cuffs and into her chest. She had barely freed her hands before he made a lunge for the spray. She had thrown it behind her before he had ended up on top of her.

The trained soldier and pilot easily grappled her, however she was determined to get free especially with her friend and her Doctor surrounded outside. "Let go off me," she yelled as she struggled with her captor. She tried to kick off something to topple them both down and maybe get free. She hit the console in front of the windshield.

Suddenly she felt weightless for a moment then there was a massive metallic gong noise. The pilot let go of her and lay limp on the floor. She rushed forward hoping for some sort of simple English console or at least some sort of accessible voice interface with the ship, when she saw the other agents outside lying in the grass and the Doctor walking calmly with Mickey towards the ship. She waved frantically at them. The Doctor smiled and waved back before disappearing from view. A moment later a door in the side of the ship slid open. She turned and ran over giving her Doctor a warm hug ignoring Mickey's look as she saw his face over the Doctor's shoulder.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: After the match**

She was sitting next to the TARDIS console blowing on her hot cup of tea. Mickey was off in the kitchen making another cup of tea for himself this time. The Doctor was outside talking with the Time Agency representatives that had come immediately after he had sent a call to them. They were going to deal with Jack and the rest. The Doctor had insisted that they didn't interact too much with him earlier. She wanted too but there were other things on her mind. Like all the weird stuff that had happened and the event she tried to forget. The feel of the male alien rummaging in her mind, forcing her memories all her memories out of her then doing something weird that had made him scream in her mind hard enough for her to lose consciousness for a while. The last she remembered where the whisper of the words: "Bad Wolf" entering her mind.

It wasn't the first time some alien had mentioned that she had something of the wolf about her. The Werewolf had said she had burned like the sun. She had put if off. She had last thought about Bad Wolf when she had discovered it was a message for her. That had been before she had opened the heart of the TARDIS. After that everything was a blur until she had woken up in front of her Doctor who had been in the process of dying. She was sure she should have known what the words meant exactly and where they came from, but it had kept slipping her mind. Now she wondered why she hadn't at least given it some thought. She sipped the warm tea again and tried to put it out of her mind.

"_I am the Bad Wolf, I create myself."_ The words echoed suddenly through her mind. She felt or remembered a sharp burning pain. The memory was that strong as was the faint feeling and memory of a most beautiful song. She gasped and winced. The feeling, the pain and the memory disappeared like smoke through her fingers as she sought to define it.

"You ok," Mickey asked.

She wondered if she should tell him... but then she decided that there was nothing to tell. "Yeah, rough day that is all," she answered.

The Doctor burst in. "All done. Now I am not normally one to stay and fix the little details. However Jack is a friend and the Time Agency promised to set things right," he said. He wandered up to her and gave her an intense stare. "Are you alright, Rose," he asked suddenly a lot more serious than usual after a successful adventure.

She decided to be honest, "I am a bit shaky. Their interrogation was rough."

"And you're sure you're alright?" He studied her for a moment as she nodded. He gently held her hand then hugged her drawing her head against his chest for a moment. She heard his hearts beat and the sound soothed her a lot. Then she felt a strange shiver down her spine and leaned back looking around. It had been like someone staring at her from behind, but it had already stopped again. "I am sorry Rose, I don't know why they did that to you," he said and gave her questioning glance.

But she decided she had no idea why they had done it and so had nothing to say. Instead she wondered and asked, "What will they do to Jack? He looked devastated."

The Doctor looked at her for a moment she saw the grim reality in them. She remembered when she had first met Jack how happy go lucky he had been, but also how angry over losing two years of his memories. "You really think this is the reason they erased his memory?" she said and blinked in surprise.

"It could very well be, I am not sure. We should leave though, I think a more pleasant place should be on the menu don't you," the Doctor suggested.

"Actually Doctor I wouldn't mind a bit of a rest before going anywhere," she said feeling more than a bit knackered.

He looked at her and nodded. "No problem, a rest might do us all a bit of good, I'll put the TARDIS into deep space far away from anywhere," he said and set about activating the controls of his ship. She nodded and used to the shuddering of flight she walked out of the control room. Her room was luckily pretty close.

She thumped into the bed of the room she had made her home. Stacks of clothes lay in cupboards to avoid getting tossed around by their travels and the bed smelled homey now after she had used it for years. She had glued a small picture of her mom along with another old one of her dad next to the bed but otherwise the only memorabilia around was the leftovers from her travels, souvenirs from places close and far in both time and space. A small lacquered figurine from Japan in the early 19th century. A blue purple icicle-like rock from Woman Wept. A small note confirming her as the Dame of Powell Estate handwritten by Queen Victoria with a sure handed comment about her banishment on top.

She locked the door and undressed carefully feeling more than a bit sore here and there. If she had felt more energetic a warm shower would have been in order, but she decided it could wait until morning. Instead she just put on a different T-shirt and jumped on the covers. She waved her hand over the light and the room fell into a dusk like semi-darkness lighted by the faint bluish glow of the unreadable Gallifreyan circular words that were inscribed on the back of her door.

He stood staring at the TARDIS console as they were finally adrift inside the Time Vortex. He had opted to pilot his ship there rather than somewhere reachable like deep space. They needed a little while in transit between adventures again. It had happened before of course. Minor wounds or events that needed to be processed had before made it necessary for doing a bit of drifting through nowhere. He would use the time to read, fix his ship or doing different things, while Rose would run around the TARDIS slowly getting bored. In his last incarnation he had hated it, but that incarnation had never liked to stop and contemplate much of anything being almost a walking wounded trying to escape from his own memories. He sighed and pushed off from the console, considering if he wanted to go to his library or swing by the kitchen where Mickey often camped out. "Library it is," he said and walked that way.

He noted immediately as he walked towards the library that he was passing Rose's room. He had given it to her over a year ago. She had been all of 19 years old, a good human being but woefully unprepared for the universe he had taken her into or anywhere else for that matter. Still she had made it her home. He hadn't been inside a lot since then. At first because of his hurting soul not wanting to think about the possibilities of life in the TARDIS becoming domestic as he no longer had a place to call home. Now he respected Rose's privacy too much to invade it. By now pretty much like Rose he had made the TARDIS all the home he needed and her a part of his family. He lingered for a moment contemplating their strange day.

He had two things on his mind with associations to their day he realized as he walked towards his destination. He wanted to know why the first H'Fahni had chosen to focus so much on Rose and why that had killed it. However he had guessed from Rose's behaviour that she had no idea either. She had been tortured mentally but that didn't mean she was aware of much more than that consciously. He considered initiating telepathic contact with her but he hadn't had too much luck with that lately given the bond inadvertently formed with Reinette a while back and besides he knew Rose wasn't really very happy about any kind of telepathic access to her mind. He had really only been in there once and that was not a clear memory for him either. Second he wondered how the base capable of shifting between real space and the time vortex had escaped the conflagration in the Time War and Rose's equally massive act to end it just a few months ago. Still it was probably just coincidence as it had been free of Daleks.

He settled into his favourite reading chair looking around at the numerous books most from Gallifrey that lay open against the edge of his table. He looked at the different ones chose the one on the study on the creatures native to the Time Vortex and started reading trying to distract himself for a few hours.

He was getting surer every day he spent aboard this ship. He was realizing that there would not be a place for him on it forever and that maybe just maybe he didn't want there to be. Rose wasn't embracing him back in her life as he had hoped. She had her new better life, a life with meaning she said and it apparently didn't need a Mickey Smith to improve it. Or maybe it was just a cowardice that was unbecoming that spoke again. He didn't like it, but at times he fell back to old behaviour again feeling afraid, fearing change, things like that. And worst of all he still felt like the tin dog.

He also thought about their day. Seeing incredible things, getting into dangerous, but no without reason and then fighting back. He didn't feel pride when he thought about how he had behaved during their crisis. He wanted that to change. He did have a feeling that wanting it to change and changing it was not the same thing. Also he was discovering he realized as he blew on his hot tea that the universe might not be the best choice of places to find the stable relationship with Rose that he had hoped when he had asked the Doctor for permission to join. He wasn't sure why the Doctor had allowed him to come but he had.

He looked at the strange kitchen with its golden walls, rounded beams and rounded cabinets stocked with things from many ages and worlds. A lot of the food was from Earth apparently the Doctor's favourite resupply station or maybe it was the influence of his travelling companions. He started drinking his tea and considered turning in himself to rest his tired legs, which had done all too much running today for his taste.

Locked in her dreams and with everyone else otherwise occupied no one not even Rose noticed a subtle golden flash of energy surrounding her body then fading. It hadn't been the first of there flashes and it wouldn't be the last. Meanwhile in Rose's mind a barrier was crumbling ever so slowly and memories were leaking into her unprepared brain.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 2: Pawn promoted to...**

**Chapter 1: A Star Wars Moment**

He looked towards his companion and felt his hearts thump with sympathy. Sometimes he like his predecessor wondered why the girl even wandered the universe with him. Her resilience to loss was astounding. He knew she loved Mickey her reactions in their year and a half together proved that. She wasn't head over heels in love with him, but still he had been her bloke. Now it was nearly a month since he had left them to stay in an alternate universe never to be seen again. And it was his fault he felt that Mickey had even considered staying to fight the parallel world battle against the Cybermen.

He had accepted Mickey aboard in spite of Rose's unvoiced objections. Strangely it seemed she wasn't holding it against him. She had mourned Mickey like he was dead for a month since they had returned to their universe. He had subtly of course tried to cheer her back up, but she remained slightly affected almost more pale than usual. Without telling her and being very firm with his adventurous ship he had guided them from grand sight to grand sight after their visit with Jackie. It had been a nice time so far and the human girl had needed it. They had visited the grand avenues of the ancient age of planet Robisher, which he was glad because of the fantastic architecture he had been able to appreciate there. It had been almost Osirian. He had for the first time himself seen the multicoloured heaven of the Four Suns on C'mm'Da. They had rested as guests his old friend the Emperor of Y'trek in his nearly continent sized palace for a week and now they were literally walking amongst the clouds.

He looked at Rose, who stood there amongst the pinkish water vapour that swirled around the force field bridge between several of the free floating grand houses of Wqrrel, the prettiest city ever to be built in free flight. They had been here for a nearly a week. He had attended a conference by several higher races attempting to make a treaty to prevent an intergalactic war between the Q'ol and the Nods. It seemed to have succeeded although the final treaty would not be signed until the next day. Meanwhile Rose had enjoyed what could best be compared with a spa visit and frequent walks like this one strolling on an nearly invisible bridge amongst the clouds. He knew she had made a few new friends amongst them a Chtonian family.

She turned towards him just as the first indications of sunset gave the clouds a more reddish tinge. "This is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen," she said with watery eyes. "It is like a clip taken out of Star Wars," she continued and looked out at the clouds again.

He wondered if she was touched by the beauty or if it was thoughts of Mickey that was making her nearly cry. "What's wrong," he asked wanting to pry but not wanting to be callous.

She studied him for a moment then shook her head, "I appreciate what you've been doing these last weeks, but I'm alright. I'll miss 'im but it was his decision. Listen you don't need to keep picking safe places to go. I'm okay really. Mickey chose to come. He chose to leave. You don't have to wrap me in cotton and fear that I'll leave ya over this. I've grieved and I am done. Everything has its time and everything dies. And Mickey might as well be."

He heard the echo of those words in his mind for a while. She could not know how important those words were to him. They were a part of the Time Lord credo. They were essential to the understanding of the universe. Complete acceptance of entropy was a requirement for a sane life. And educated or not Rose understood this he could see it clearly in her eyes. He was happy she was sharing in his life giving him such hope for the human race.

She sniffled a little bit then grinned as always uncomfortable with too much emotion. That was another quality in her he liked not one to dwell much himself. He nodded then said, "You know Rose. I haven't really been picking safe locations for us to go to. I am fully capable of and happy with living a quiet life... every once in a while at least. Conferences such as this one are just as important as running around on Earth or Justica stopping some Slitheen scheme."

She laughed clearly not believing him and looked around at the clouds again, when there was a mighty explosion behind them. They both whipped around and saw the cloud of debris and smoke rising from a now burning conference centre. He noted that the explosion had been close to or even in the building's main reactor. Which could mean that systems might lose power. Systems such as a force field bridge over the planet far below. "Run," he yelled and headed towards the unharmed building in the distance. Rose needed no more incentive and set off after him.

The bridge flickered. For a moment they were pulled at by gravity then they were on solid ground again. The flickering would increase as the building they were heading for tried to compensate for the lack of help from the other side. "This is more like it," an out of breath Rose managed to gasp out between breaths. There was another flicker for a moment his leg flailed at the air then he was gently pressed up out of the floor by the force field, still he nearly made a leg breaking stop. Rose tumbled down as well.

They scrambled back up, he was limping while Rose seemed unhurt. Then he felt it. The slow tilt of the path. He turned and looked back towards the by now burning grand house. It had housed the conference and he feared this might mean the opening of hostilities by two higher races both which had access to weaponry that could spell the death of billions of the regular universe's inhabitants as the giants of the beyond struggled with each other. More immediate was his concern that as the anti-gravity generators were failing the other end of their bridge was slowly beginning its fall towards the planet below and could very well take them with it as their path either was cancelled or tilted to a smooth slope leading only down. At least they weren't more than maybe 50 meters from their goal. There was another short flicker then he felt a shudder through his feet.

The path abruptly tilted and he was suddenly running on a dew-wet roughened force field with 60 degree inclination. He slipped and next to him so did Rose. They slid on the force field towards the now burning wreckage of the falling house when he saw it. The path wasn't flickering beyond a few feet ahead of them. It had disappeared completely. The connection between the houses had broken. He felt a rush of air around them as the path righted itself but also propelled them up. Rose screamed then they were flying through the air. He concentrated trying to avoid getting caught in the wind and drift. Somewhere nearby he sensed and heard Rose screaming in surprise then he landed with a thump on the force field path again. As did Rose thankfully.

"Are you ok?" he asked and looked the more fragile human over. She sat for a moment then nodded apparently not able to decide with she should cry or laugh. After another few seconds she got up looking and acting no worse for wear.

"We have to find out what happened," he said and headed towards the house. They had to get to the central cluster where he had parked the TARDIS.

"I should have kept my mouth shut. Practically jinxed us right there," she thought as they ran through the clouds across nearly invisible bridges going from house to house until they reached the huge central cluster building practically an over-over-sized high rise hanging in mid air. It was also the place where the Doctor had parked the TARDIS along side hundreds of other outlandish space craft. They were in the 217th century according Earth reckoning and the Doctor had claimed he had needed to attend a conference.

At first she had thought it another excuse for a milk run to help her get over Mickey. It was sweet but she would need time not sights and experiences to get over what had happened to him. Of course she had not minded all that much seeing so many interesting things and she had also suffered from strange nightmares and headaches for over a month. At least it looked like she had some of the skill of the Doctor at attracting trouble. One sentence about getting bored with the quiet and wham suddenly she was in a life threatening situation. If she recalled correctly the Doctor had mentioned that the peace talks were rather important. An attack just couldn't mean anything good and if the hurry the Doctor was in was any indication this might be more trouble than the horrible event earlier had immediately indicated. All around them rescue vehicles were diving in the direction of the fallen great house and the traffic on the more stable solid material bridges was rampant.

They ran into a corridor. She saw several aliens of a type she had never seen before, but by now too polite and experienced a traveller to gawk at them, she lamented the opportunity not being to get to know any more of the people at the resort for now. At least the last week had offered her plenty of chances to further her horizons beyond anything she had time for before. A Chtonian family had been visiting and the spidery aliens, now even more peaceful than when she had encountered them in the 51st century, had been her dinner companions every evening while the Doctor had been in meetings giving her the first experience of interacting with aliens without the Doctor nearby to help. Meanwhile the Doctor had gotten to do what he did best and talk. The Doctor slowed and began walking briskly heading for a small bluish creature reminding her of the aliens she had encountered when they had visited the end of the Earth in the future some time.

"Doctor," the blue skinned humanoid greeted him, she was not really apart of the conference and so stopped a few steps away and caught her breath while listening as always as the Doctor spoke with one of his acquaintances.

"Representative Ekka, what happened, was the conference attacked?" she heard the Doctor ask, when she suddenly had a sense of deja-vu. Had something like this happened before and why did she feel afraid?

"Unknown however the Balhoon corporation have people looking at the wreckage. This is not why I interrupted your walk. There has been requests for information on your presence here Doctor," the blue alien explained almost fidgeting. She looked around something was very wrong. She felt, she knew it. Then she noticed it. The shadows cast through the massive panorama windows as the last sunlight of the day shone across the wall. Two figures one with tentacles around his jaw but both humanoid were moving rapidly along the outside of the building. Heading their way out of sight of the Doctor.

"Doctor," she yelled. He swirled around and saw the two shadows as well when there was a massive crash and the figures clad in futuristic armour which seemed to glow from within vaulted into the room. They were both brandishing alien weapons which also gave off ominous blue glows from their barrels.

"In here," the Doctor yelled and sprang into a side passage tearing his blue friend along. She ran over as there was a whining and a blue gob of flame passed by leaving a hot blur in the air. She kept running as several more shots were fired. She skidded to a stop next to the Doctor who was looking rather lost for words and even scarier ideas. She noticed for the first time that the side passage was no more than an alcove for a pretty but useless light sculpture.

"Any ideas," the Doctor noted.

"We should use that guy as a shield," she suggested feeling that the little blue guy had been able to see their attackers for a while before she had discovered them and hadn't warned them. Added to that it looked upset at being drawn into the alcove.

"What no! Lousy human barbarian," the blue figure protested. The Doctor gave her an appalled look.

"Listen, he saw them way before I did," she argued then noticed as the Doctor surely had as well that the shooting had stopped.

"Hello in there, we'll make you an offer. You step out and accept what is coming to you, Doctor and your companion get to stay here alive and intact instead of in an ashtray," one of the aliens said. The voice sounded wet and slimy probably coming from the tentacles silhouette she had seen earlier.

"What do you want me for?" the Doctor asked giving her a surprised look. She couldn't help lifting an eyebrow.

"You've got a rather substantial price on your head dead or alive," the voice replied again. She would've sworn it had moved closer.

"And what you only do dead? So you attacked a peaceful conference, killed hundreds just to get me," the Doctor asked his anger rising.

"What are you going on about, we're legitimate bounty hunters, mate, we haven't hurt anyone... yet," the alien replied.

"If I may ask, what am I accused of doing?" the Doctor asked clearly stalling for time. She thought that maybe he hoped for some sort of response from the security forces that were posted every where. The other people had vacated the hall after the bounty hunters had attacked. The little blue alien was edging away from the Doctor heading for the back end of the alcove looking at her and the Doctor like it was equally afraid of them and the bounty hunters.

"Heh, alright if nothing else then to pass the time," the voice replied, while the Doctor gestured for her to hide behind him and the alien after having once again looked around and failed to see any way out of the alcove. "You've been wanted for crimes against sentience for quite a while now, Mr. Time Lord. Several races banded together and had you tried in absence at the Nave but that was a few hundred years ago. Fast forward to now and your sensor image is still on a tiny posting in the intergalactic bounty hunter database. We were just the lucky ones to hear about you being here for the conference and take a swing at it. I must say, I'm a bit disappointed. I'd heard that you were supposed to be quite slippery." She noticed that the voice sounded really close.

"Sorry to disappoint," the Doctor replied and edged closer to the corner seemingly preparing to jump someone probably a bounty hunter who had edged closer while they talked. She considered doing the same but was unsure how to go about it.

There was a metallic noise as if something small landing on the floor. A small square metal object bounced off the opposite wall and landed in the alcove right at her feet.

"Rose, get down," the Doctor yelled and pushed her away. There was a great white flash then she saw only darkness as she lost consciousness.

She woke up in an empty alcove. The blue skinned alien was gone as was to her horror the Doctor. There was a burnt spot on the floor right next to the Doctor's coat. She felt nauseous but she staggered over to examine it. As she lifted it off the floor there was a clatter and the sonic screwdriver landed on the stone like floor. She stared at it for a moment then grabbed it back up. She checked her pockets. She still had her cell phone and the TARDIS key. She started to walk albeit a bit wobbly. She needed to find the Doctor. They couldn't have gone far. As she passed down the corridors towards the landing bays where all the ships had been parked she began meeting aliens again and to her horror she couldn't understand them. They were talking to each other, one or two who knew her nodded politely, but she couldn't understand them. The Doctor was unconscious or possibly gone, which like during the invasion of Earth meant the TARDIS no longer translated for her.

She entered the giant landing bay and quickly found the TARDIS standing like a dwarf between huge outlandish looking space craft looking like a little piece of Earth history. She ran up to it and unlocked it. She made sure to lock it after getting in. As she had expected there was no Doctor in sight. She walked up to the console checking to see if he had left some sort of message or hint to help her. His insistence on her not being able to pilot the TARDIS and unwillingness to teach her meant that she would not be able to track the bounty hunters if they left and maybe they already had. She was unable to speak with any of the aliens in the entire universe and if what she suspected was true neither could she talk to any humans due to the changes in their language over time.

For a moment she realized how utterly dependant she was on the Doctor, for a moment she felt utterly useless. Then she sighed, shook her head and started thinking. There had to be some way something she could do. She couldn't give up. There was no other way home except through the Doctor which meant she had to get him back.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 2: Dire Straits**

She decided she had to at least try to find someone to communicate with. The TARDIS translated using telepathy and several other races were telepathic as well. That meant if any of the visitors were telepathic then she might be able to get them to understand and help her. She got up from the seats next to the console and wandered outside. She locked the door, when there was a humming noise just next to her head and something metallic pressed against her skull.

She swallowed a yelp of surprise as she realized someone was pressing a gun against her head. There was another noise of a strange bass tone voice spouting off some gobbeldy gook that she had no idea what meant. The gun was pressed against her head again as if to increase the threat. "Listen, mate, I can't understand ya," she stammered forth. There was more garbled noise then the gun slid around staying against her head as a figure walked to stand behind her. Rough armoured gauntlets with six fingers grabbed her hands and forced them behind her back. Cold metallic cuffs were slapped around her hands and more words were said to her, but she had no idea what to do and the gun pretty much ruled out any resistance she could've mustered. Then when she could resist a blindfold was added. She tried turning her head out of the way to dodge it somehow, but it was too late her world turned dark.

The gun moved to her back. It and a hand prodded and pushed her away from the TARDIS and deep into the busy cavernous hangar bay she guessed. She was shocked that no one seemed to be speaking out to help her, but she felt almost betrayed when she heard that several aliens passed closed by talking in their unintelligible tongue but seemingly not bothered by her situation. "Oi, you guys do something. I have done anything," she yelled but of course they didn't understand her. There was another angry command from behind her and she was pushed forward even harder than before.

They walked for a while before they reached their destination. The still unseen figure behind her poked and prodded her until she stumbled up a set of stairs. She was getting a bit desperate. The alien forced her inside something that sounded like it was really small, removed her cuffs and there was a heavy metallic click. She whirled about, while tearing off the blindfold. Suddenly very much aware of the lack of space she found herself in an armoured 1.5 square meters cell. She could neither see nor hear her captor. She screamed and yelled for a while. Hammered her hands against the cold door, but couldn't make it budge. She dared not contemplate why or where she was taken, but she had to do something.

Nothing came to mind. The Doctor often got by talking away his problems and she had often found it helped trying to relate somehow if sometimes her sarcasm got in her own way. She tried talking then yelling again. But as the sound echoed around her cell and she realized she could neither hear the alien or even the ship they were in as it took off and rapidly headed into space, she knew that she was well and truly screwed. Finally she broke down in tears.

He awoke from the synaptic stun grenade and probably some sort of drugs from the taste in his mouth to find himself locked in shackles and bound to a chair. He was in a middle sized star ship obviously using some sort of slipstream drive if he judged the sounds and energies he was sensing correctly. What was worse it was clearly active and that meant he was probably a good distance from Rose and the TARDIS. He had two problems, he needed to get away from the bounty hunters and then get back to her. While he trusted her to be able to handle herself on her own, he also knew that with him so far away she'd be unable to understand the aliens around her and without him around he had no idea if the Balhoon corporation would keep subsidizing their rooms, food or their hangar space. And she was unable to pilot the TARDIS without him, so he couldn't expect her to come for him.

He tried to feel out his shackles and noted he was lacking his coat, which also meant the only tool he had left was his psychic paper still in his back pocket, while his sonic screwdriver was somewhere back with Rose and his TARDIS. He looked around. He was locked to a stair that sat in a large room, a cargo bay he guessed, that had been emptied. There was a single door off to his right probably leading deeper into the ship that to him looked like it was some sort of converted 4th Human Empire medium warship, which meant heavy shield and a nice load of weapons, but also and that was more important a type of vehicle that he could both fly and understand the technology behind.

The bounty hunters had mentioned something of a legal problem though and that was making him reconsider his escape plans a bit more carefully. The Nave had apparently condemned him in his absence. Which was usually not something he cared much about except that the Nave did represent the definite collective of almost 50 percent of the intergalactic community of this age and it was the half that could actually be considered neither a threat to all life nor uncivilized. There were several time travelling races amongst them even a few races that the Time Lords had considered formidable. He didn't want a sentence from the Nave hanging over his head or incidents like the one he had just had would reoccur frequently.

What he did wonder about was why he was wanted. He had never in the timeline discovered a hint of this before unless of course it was this incarnation, which meant he may be wanted for something he would do later rather than now... Yes that was likely unless the other option was in play. Maybe some of his enemies, of which he had many, had arranged him to be brought up on false charges. Still his chances of fighting either option would be substantially improved if he wasn't executed upon arrival, which meant he needed to do something more than just sitting in a chair. He wondered how good his new body was a whistling. His last one had been horrible at it.

She had cried for a while and then with her stomach growling and her throat dry she had fallen asleep in the tiny metal cube that was her prison. A massive bang and rattle woke her up. She was being moved. Her cell shook and she was rattled about for a while then there was a hum and it felt like she was being moved steadily sideways like on a conveyor. The idea of a box on a conveyor inspired her. She threw herself against the side of the box trying to topple it. Her cell didn't even twitch. She tried again, but got no results. The box rattled and seemed to swing freely again then was set down with a bang that even reached into her confinement.

She banged against the door which to her shock freely swung open. Someone spoke in a deeply bass tone but in a language she didn't understand. The words, "Rose Tyler," appeared in the sentence. She took a few steps outside and looked around. Another sentence was spat out sounding quite angry but still not understandable to her. She turned and saw a figure, a human figure with pale white irises and a skeletal robotic arm. He sneered at her and said something again with her name in it.

"I can't understand ya," she replied. He stopped and sneered. He took out a device and pressed a button on it and put it on a table.

"Can you understand me now Rose," he asked still in his angry voice.

"Yeah... Do I know you?" she had to ask. He paused and his expression changed from anger to confusion for a while. He studied her intensely.

"Yes and no, I have met you before that is in your future my past. I knew you were a time traveller, but I had hoped," he said and started pacing.

She looked around. The box she had been captured in stood in a room with a glass wall overlooking yet another gigantic hangar. There was a bank of holographicly projected pictures over several computer terminals along with a bigger door leading into the hangar and a smaller one leading somewhere else. She wondered if she had any way of getting out of the room without the man, who was creeping her out, noticing.

"Ah, Rose don't even think of trying to trick me. I know you. You're thinking about trying to escape. So typical. By the way did you like what I did to your friend or what my friend did to that peace conference quite the diversion yes? Your friend was quite easy to frame there are so many who fear or even hate him. The Doctor a time travelling legend much like yourself. For almost 500 years I have waited for any sign of you. There have been sightings of course, but then finally I get my chance and it is the wrong you," he advanced towards her.

She of course backed away heading towards the larger set of doors trying to make it look as coincidental as possible. "Listen I don't know what you're going on about, but I guess if you've seen me in the past and it is my future that means you should just let me go or we'd cause a paradox," she suggested.

"Actually that gives me the chance to satisfy a bit of scientific curiosity. Find out how you work, how you think and finally then I will test the old theory if the universe will act to stop me from killing you to prevent a paradox," he said.

"No way," she exclaimed and turned dashing for what she hoped was the button to open the door. Nothing happened.

"Oh, Rose, that only works on me once, of course I disabled the door before I let you out. This place is wrapped in every known form of shielding against time and space phasing devices. There is no way to escape me," he explained, his voice coming from inches behind her. She swivelled around.

He was standing right in front of her. He reached out with his mechanical hand and ran the ice cold device along her chin down towards her neck. She flinched away, but too late. A tiny needle sprouted from one of his fingers and entered her neck. A few moments later she blinked and fell unconscious.

He stopped whistling. His lips hurt but the results were apparent. The small drone meant to repair minor damage to the ship had appeared out of its waiting place and according to his commands through the whistle undone his bonds. He looked as it rolled back into its hiding place. He headed up to the door and looked it over. It was off and probably set to alert the crew if it was opened. "Too easy," he said with a smile.

A few painful panel prying moments later, bit of cable fiddling and he was free. He careful walked through the corridors looking for advantages. Normally he would've dashed to the cockpit and tried talking his way out of the situation using both wit and quick thinking to solve his problems, however this required more of an advantage than that. So when he reached the corridor where he had to choose which way to go he headed for the place he could benefit the most from... the engine room.

They looked at the stars outside as they slowly changed and moved. They were on the right course heading for the Nave. They would arrive in a few hours. He leaned back and enjoyed his beer, when there was an intense white flash. He barely managed to lean forward and try to yell for the computer before he too was enveloped in the transmat beam and found himself in a very crammed lifepod with his friend and partner. "What is happening," his friend demanded in his moist voice shaped by his tentacle mouth. But before he could decide between answering and trying to open the small door back into their ship the face of their prisoner appeared outside the glass window in the door. The brown haired time lord gave them a friendly wave and pressed a button. A heavy lid rapidly shut into place and their new home ploughed away from their ship rapidly dropping out of warp, while their precious ship disappeared. He could only groan. They had lost.

He read his warrant and the attached information. He was a bit relieved to find that things weren't as clear cut as the bounty hunters had claimed. Yes, he had been tried in his absence but in a small court which was run by an alliance of races he had no regard or real fear off. And it was old, which meant that any time travellers would've long appeared on his sensors or wouldn't succeed. Now because he had lodged a complaint against the unfair hearing and the bias of the court the bounty was still on notice, but that was a small matter to rectify.

He spent half an hour writing up his complaint and sending it then well as modifying the warp drive to send out a signal which would summon the TARDIS. As it faded in and reported that Rose had left it nearly a day ago after locking it, he dashed inside and began fiddling with the TARDIS controls setting them to get him back to the conference and Rose hopefully still safe and sound.

The torturous examination had gone on for hours. He had electroshocked her, he had poked her with needles, drugged her and taken samples from her body and yet. Somehow she knew, what was coming, was going to hurt more as her captor rolled out a strange device which seemed to end up in a metal spider with meter long legs ending in thin needles. Of course after getting beamed with X-rays, measured, poked and prodded with several needles she was already hurting, but somehow she couldn't get upset. It was like a great calm had settled in her mind like she knew she would get through it all. She suspected her subconscious was telling her that she already knew she would live on to met this guy again in the future which would be his past.

"Now my dear I know you're uncomfortable, but I really want to take a look inside that fantastic little head of yours. I promise this will be excruciatingly painful," he said as the frightening device rolled into place. Her calm to her surprise increased and she felt even more detached almost as if she was watching from a tunnel that lead up towards her eyes. She felt anticipation grow as the man whistling to himself installed the device on the steel bed she was locked motionless to.

Then without warning it hit. White hot undefinable pain coursed through her head. She thrashed and thrashed but was too restrained to dislodge herself or the probe. It seemed to go on forever. Then suddenly something weakened over a month earlier by a snooping psionic broke and as the computer banks hooked into to the mind probe fried themselves one by one, as the mind probe in her head exploded away from her, the worst of it all was happening in her mind. She saw not for a moment, not in a glimpse but in a seemingly unending flow and with unending width the totality of all existence almost unending in both directions. Far too much for a human mind or any mind for that matter. Then it started looping playing again and again in her mind.

So while all around her a space station which she had not known about before then lost control and grew chaotic her human mind was once again confronted with the knowledge, all the knowledge of all of time and space. She had known she would regain it back then not so long ago. She had secretly prepared for this time making sure she would be able to focus to act. For a moment her focus on the forgotten past gave her enough strength to see something clearly. Her rescue of her doctor, the ecstasy and pain of the Time Vortex coursing through her. The power of the Bad Wolf so aptly named so destructively used as it blew through the Daleks, so benign as she woke Jack from the dead. Life but a quirk of matter to her then but not now.

Then death approaching her mind burning not only from the power but from the knowledge. Madness nipping at her heels, she remembered the Doctor as he rose and took the power from her, secretly amazed that she had lived so far. The disappointment and the hundreds of tiny time line preparations as she relinquished the vortex to him. His unflinching gaze as he used the power of the Time Lords and the Vortex to heal time, to heal her, to seal the knowledge of her deed of all things away and then banish any wish to repeat it from her mind. She saw him breathe the near infinite power back into heart of the TARDIS before grabbing her and carrying her to rest in ship. For a moment he had wondered if he had done enough if his sacrifice was enough to prevent her death then he had gotten on with dying himself.

The scene faded. She was aware of wandering freely inside the tumbling space station. Somehow able to avoid all the flying objects and able to predict her fleeing opponents every move. But was it now, was it later, what would happen later if it had not changed. Time and Space was fluid not stone mallable changeable and seemingly filled with purpose. Things would change. She would change. Everything would change. Each moment even her knowledge changed. Madness was nipping at her heels again and soon she could become a vegetable but she knew of a way to avoid it. And through all those thoughts she somehow still managed to let a part of her, the body maybe, follow reality's immediate plan for her.

"You'll tell me where he took her. You'll give me that mercenary's last course or you'll discover why even the Dalek's feared me," he cursed over the communicator to the Grand House Hangar people. After hours of careful talking and questioning he had learned that the security force, the other guests, no one had even cared enough to pick up the hurt Rose after the bomb and that she after awakening had been snatched away by a Gorderian, a sort of four-armed lizard.

As the Gorderians were allies of the Balhoon corporation who basically ran the Grand Houses and the conference, no one had protested when it had claimed some sort of official purpose behind Rose's apprehension. And even worse now they insisted that there was no way they would give him the Gorderian's flight plan, because he had no official permission. Normally he would've dashed back outside, gone up to a panel and used his sonic screwdriver to fix things, however Rose seemed to have kept it on her, when she had gone out.

He suddenly had an idea and whipped out his psychic paper, mentally focusing on it showing his identification as a Nave Peace Officer usually the ones sent out to capture the really really dangerous criminals. "Listen I didn't want to say anything over the communicator, but I have run out of time. The Gorderian Mercenary you let slip in and out of your jurisdiction was not a good ally for the Balhoon corporation. I am afraid that you'll have to answer to the Nave about it. I will report in immediately that you're unwilling to help a deputized peace officer for the Nave and therefore must be considered his accomplishes as well as liable for all his heinous crimes. The Court battles alone would cost googolplexes of Nave credits not to mention the damages and... "

Finally the security officer interrupted him with a white colour spreading over his blue skin, "I am sorry, we weren't informed. Of course the Balhoon corporation will offer all due aide. Now the mercenary in question is Sshhhaarck'Tur, he occasionally comes here by way of Yol's Dominion. But you should be careful going there, Domitor Yol and his people are very dangerous and I know he doesn't consider the Nave welcome in his sector of space. But that is hardly news to you," the security officer explained.

He shook his head, "of course it isn't. Thank you for your help, I will be off immediately to rescue the hostage and bring that horrible creature to justice," he said as pompously as possible and cut the com-link. Yol's Dominion was not a good place. Malk Yol was a dangerous human scientist, pirate and dictator not much better than Davros. He was fixated on immortality rather than dominion though. Yol was dangerous in the time period just after the end of the 4th great and human empire until about a thousand years later when he got it into his head that he could freely plunder the space lanes of the very war-like Xali, who repaid him the favour by sending their Black Fleet in. Hundreds of ships each armed with matter disruptors that ignored the shields and armour of Yol's ships. A couple of weeks battle later and Yol himself got turned into his component atoms. But that day was still hundreds of years away and without either the extrapolator or a good idea where exactly Rose had gone he had to be a bit careful in his search.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 3: Fear the Mad**

Scenes played before her eyes. Scenes of her life, past, present and possible future. Or was it some body's life. No, blonde hair, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Doctor... Her life. She lurched sideways suddenly aware that Yol would fire. The shot missed and rendered a hull plate red hot. She was aware of her mouth rattling off a series of letters, numbers and sounds not really in her language, while another jolt ran through the space station courtesy of the overload her knowledge had caused in its computer systems. A massive door slid down and blocked his sight of her.

She saw the Ninth Doctor charging towards her his blue-glowing screwdriver in his hand ready to unlock any door or give him an idea on what was going on. Suddenly she understood it fully. The screwdriver. Why it worked, how it worked and why only the Doctor really could use it properly. She blinked and it was in her hand not in his. Oh, right it was after. He was regenerated into the Tenth, more like the rest than the last one, but still her Doctor. She held the screwdriver against the power grid and concentrated forcing it to obey her trying fumblingly to think the Gallifreyan texts that it needed as commands at its internal sensors.

Suddenly was dancing through a garden full of hundreds upon hundreds of flowers neatly kept in small island of dirt in the soft grass. She had never seen it before, but she felt older of mind yet somehow younger of body. Maybe it was not her. Probably not she decided as she seemed to float a little with each jump. The scene changed again showing her the future, her future she thought. The immediate future that awaited her. It looked confusing. She moved her head to the right just before the bullets from Yol's henchmen's guns whizzed by. She flicked the sonic screwdriver on again and as expected another blast door dropped in place. With a wolfish grin she switched signals on the sonic screwdriver and switched it on again. She heard panicked thumping noises as the corridor full of pirates was flooded with flame retardant foam neatly knocking them out of the battle. A few sparks flew from a nearby panel soon Yol would get to the bridge and manage to reboot the system and get the station's gravity back into alignment.

She saw darkness and terror walking down the corridors towards her. Glistening faces and apparitions haunted her then disappeared. A blind pain thundered through her head, it felt like her nerves were on fire like she was carrying the Time Vortex again. She tried to reason it out was she remembering old pain, new or future but was unable to. For a while she went to her knees and allowed her blood to drip from her nose. She was bleeding internally.

She knew the exact time or had she lost track completely. She pressed herself back on to her feet. There was a goal ahead of her. A place she remembered going or went because she remembered she went there. Yet another predestination paradox, lovingly caused, it seemed by her, when she had been a god for a few moments back on the Game Station. Or maybe she went because Yol's knowledge was also in her head along with everything else and he knew that up ahead was the communications room, where she could send a signal to the TARDIS. Still she had a good way yet to go or rather try to. Suddenly she was impressed that she thought she would be able to get so far while remaining upright. Crawling felt like a better idea.

The TARDIS hurtled through space powering into the Yol's Dominion. He was wondering how he would track down Rose. Unfortunately the difference between human from the 21st Century and humans from the 217th Century wasn't big enough for her to stand out from afar. He also doubted that whoever had used their chance to pick her up, would let her be easily found having probably hidden her away. There was a sinister purpose behind all of this and he was bewildered at what it wanted to do with Rose Tyler. The screen on the TARDIS showed several differently coloured circles changing and crossing. He frowned. How could someone know the Timelord emergency beacon frequency and even more important who even knew to send a correct sequence aside from him.

"It could be a trap of course," he reminded himself, while he jaunted around the console changing the course to home in on the beacon. An old desperation and a hope against hope awakened in his mind. Had he missed someone? Was his telepathic sense of his people off? Maybe he wasn't the last of his people.

He picked up pace until a weak voice echoed in over the communications channel. "Doctor," he recognized Rose's voice, but winced at its tone pained, dry and full of fear. "Doctor, my head is killing me."

He dashed over to the console and flicked a couple of switches getting ready to reply. "I know you'll come. Malk Yol will be waiting in the Hangar bay behind the first row of boxes in front of where you'll land with a gun," she said answering his reply before he could utter it.

"I know because my mind remembers it all again. The Vortex filled my head with the knowledge of everything and you took it away. But it wasn't gone. Get it out! Get it out! Get it out," she screamed then a hoarse whisper came over the radio, "Please Doctor you're the only one who can save me."

He stood stark and filled with purpose and said more to himself than to her. "I am coming Rose." He pressed a few buttons ignoring the warning messages from the space transfer system as well as the pained shakes of his ship as it hurtled into the hangar bay. He commanded it to keep up its lateral movement. The backside of his blue box more solid than any wood could be slid with hundreds of kilometres an hour into the first row of solid metal boxes and shoved the nearest couple of them hard against the hard metal hangar walls while throwing up sparks.

He walked out of the door ignoring the smudge mark of blood and gore in the background as the last remains of Yol dripped from the walls like a overripe squished fruit crushed as he was between the TARDIS, a few metal boxes and the wall. "Never touch my Rose," he added without looking back as he walked through door after door looking for the communications room or bridge the only places on the vast space station where he suspected Rose could've gone to send her message. He passed a sign and turned that way reading the human dialect with ease.

After a while he reached a corridor. He heard angry voices and the hissing noise of some sort of fuse burning coming from there. "We have to get in there or the boss will skin us and use our hides for upholstery. Why is this taking so long," a gruff voice asked. It sounded like it came from a big man. Not really bothered to try and convince these people about anything and suspected Rose was somewhere beyond the door they were trying to open. He grabbed a cable from over head and pried a good length of it loose before looking around the corner. There was a loud bang as an explosive went off.

"We're through, get your guns ready. Yol wants the bitch dead," the lead guy, a massive hulk of a man, said.

He looked around and nodded, taking good hold of the cable he ran forward not yelling or anything. About a half the way down the corridor he was spotted. "Hey who are you," a smaller guy yelled in surprise.

"The Doctor," he replied and flicked the live wire towards an open box full of standard explosives usually trigged with an electric charge. Thanking his earlier incarnations for their foresight in learning so much about everything in his mind as it connected with the explosives. He turned and jumped into cover flat against the floor. A white hot roar passed over him then left him with the smell of roasted swine and the tinkling of hot metal. He rapidly ran over the hot floor careful to avoid the still sparking but much shorter wire and edged into the room. It was big and slightly smoky from the explosion. Outside a belated effort from the fire defence system started with the application of flame retardant foam. He looked around. He was on a mezzanine inside a large room filled with highly advanced computers and communications gear. This Yol fellow had been rather lavish with his electronics it seemed. He didn't have time to study it closely though focused as he was on looking for Rose. He spotted a foot and walked around fast to find that the clever human had taken a headset and hidden in a corner before calling him up.

He bent over her, a bit of relief washing through his body. He checked her not liking the pale and clammy skin nor the blood shot eyes. She was unresponsive and already had minor twitches which indicated beginning neural damage. She also had tiny wounds in regular intervals around her forehead indicating that someone had recently applied a crown of thorns mindprobe, a precise but highly dangerous and invasive form of technological mindprobe. He touched her mind with his telepathy and nearly fell back with the neural feedback. Rose's mind was literally filled with infinite knowledge. It was eating through the neural tissue of her mind rapidly. This meant he had to do something quickly or she would die.

He thought back through the haze of pain physical and emotional that surrounded his latest regeneration. Rose had been enormously brave and had confronted the Daleks for his sake. He had pulled the Time Vortex and its knowledge out of her and using a fragment of that power while it was in him he had sealed the knowledge away from her. For good he had thought but it seemed that wasn't so. Which meant he had to do it a bit differently. He had to remove it this time. But he had to be delicate about it or he would just wipe out Rose along with it. This was far beyond the minor telepathic abilities of his race if not exactly his skills. But not all hope was lost, first he picked up Rose.

He returned again to the TARDIS this time with the crown of thorns mindprobe and a few spare parts and cables. He hooked the cables into the time reversal circuits of the TARDIS, the cables into the control mechanism of the mindprobe with a technical wizardry, which he also modified slightly and all the while working as fast as possible. He was trying to make the TARDIS circuits reverse the degradation of Rose's mind by reversing time for her brain. If he was lucky this would allow him to gather up the leaked information back into Rose's subconscious from which he could them remove all at once without any further danger to her.

He had to force the process and with sympathetic pain all through out his body, mind and hearts he watched as Rose screamed and thrashed under the influence of the white hot needles of the mindprobe. He had been forced to make a compromise. He could not be sure what was Rose or the exact time to stop the reversal so he had to stop it at the earliest juncture. That meant there was a good chance she would remember and know more than she used to, maybe even a lot. He hoped it was little enough that she could still live with herself and him, but there was no other way to save her and he wanted that more than he wanted to preserve her exact memories.

There was also another matter. He hadn't been ready to face it before, but there was no going around it any more. Something was different about Rose. No human could have withstood the mental pressures Rose had just been under and not have their mind scrambled into ever so much jelly. In a way she should have died long ago when she had the Time Vortex in her head. It should have cooked her, but it hadn't. He had waved it off in his mind thinking that his timely intervention had saved her. But his intervention had killed him even after only carrying it for a few moments. He had until now thought that the unsophisticated brain tissue and body of a human had saved his Rose, but now he had to consider that this attitude had been just another application of his rather unseemly Time Lord racial arrogance.

The process of gathering up and removing the Time Vortex knowledge from Rose would take time but while he was tempted to satisfy his curiosity by taking a few samples and head off to Malk Yol's abandoned laboratory he couldn't get himself to move out of sight of his dearest companion.

She was his most precious one to date. She had done and seen almost more than most if not all of his companions. She was loyal and most important of all she learned and understood. She wasn't meek and needy she was competent and a quick learner. While he had decided long ago to not complicate the lives of people time would remove from his life by allowing his relationship with them to progress to the physical level he had found it harder this time. He knew Rose had at times wanted him in that way and so had he many times both before with the ears and now without. He often cursed himself for it but there was no other way. He couldn't live in his entire life with them and that he felt wasn't fair to wonderful people like Rose. Still he also would never part ways with her like he had done the others. Rose was his, he knew no better way of putting it. She was to stay with him until the latest possible moment until she had enough of him not he of her. That was his one egotistical act when dealing with her life. She would have to leave him not him her.

It tore him up looking at the thrashing girl now, but finally the readings indicated that the process was as done as it could be. Quickly and with great relief he flicked the device off and quickly set about removing it from sight not wanting Rose to awaken to the sight of the device that had hurt her and it being in his hands. He moved her to her room, bandaged her remaining wounds then sat down to watch over her only barely noting how she had decorated the room he had set aside for her. He sat there in the comfortable smell of Rose and her perfume to watch her recover. Every once in a while she would moan and thrash a little before he reached over to caress her hair or skin at which she visibly settled down.

It was fantastic he thought to himself. There he was, over nine hundred years old, a proud Time Lord, a true Gallifreyan if very adventurous, a hero to billions, a villain to just about as many and he was basically in love with a regular human girl from the 21th century time reckoning. It was new to him. He had been in love before but never besotted much like this.

He was really starting to wonder about the regular human girl part though. The last reading from the probe had shown that Rose's mind had actually suffered very little damage. That was about as possible and likely as her getting through possessing the time vortex with little more than a headache and a vague memory of singing. He had ignored facts moved on for too long.

"I am sorry," he whispered and got up. He couldn't wait any longer. He had to admit it was his inevitable curiosity rearing its head. He dashed through his beloved ship picking up a few devices before fiddling and connecting them to the TARDIS sensor systems. He rigged together a scanner then dashed back into Rose's room not even half an hour later.

He looked her over, but as he had expected she hadn't awakened from the trauma yet. He ran the scanner over his friend. He started out simple and scanned her internal structure and her DNA. Then he went through several more exotic options especially looking for any signs of the Time Vortex. Satisfied and convinced he had time to work he turned to leave then as an afterthought he set the scanner to its basic setting, pointed it towards Rose and left it there while he headed for the TARDIS console. He'd rather like to keep an eye on her he had decided.

A few minutes later he sat in the set of seats next to the console, his reading glasses in his hands and what he was sure was a shocked look on his face. He had known that something like this was theoretically possible. He had never ever seen it happen especially not by accident. But it was there in his results. Rose's DNA was no longer the DNA of a 21st century human. In fact it was unlike any DNA of any human later on too, mostly because in the future humans would intermingle and change according to their life amongst the rest of the habitants of the universe. She had the body and genetic make-up of a purely theoretical human some millions years in the future even worse it was still changing. And he even knew what had happened. When Rose had taken the vortex into her head it had spread to all of her body and unsettled her cells in time. Not Rose not her body but her very cells and DNA.

That meant Rose had actually evolved all the time right under his nose. She had slowly been going from 21st century human to something biologically unique throughout space and time. Even worse it seemed to have adapted Rose's DNA to her life, which meant she had adapted to time travel, grave danger, telepathic fields and an intense life in general. And he had no idea how to stop it before it changed her into something too different. He knew just knew Rose would hate the idea of something like this happening to her. It would require incredibly complex time science specific research to stop it going on. He wondered how he would wrangle that. Then he realized that there was something even worse. He would have to tell Rose and then it got even darker in his mind as he flashed to the look and feel of Jackie Tyler's hand hammering across her chin. There was worse things to come than telling Rose.

She awoke to strangeness beyond the last things she remembered. She rested in her room safely back on the TARDIS. The time ship she had been kidnapped in front off and moved far away from. _Stars flashed before her eyes showing her the TARDIS floating in space then speeding off back to the Great houses floating in the sky then she slammed back just as quickly into her room within the relative space of her current home._

"What happened?" She said then grasped her head head in surprise but not pain. She suddenly knew what had gone on. Somehow she actually knew stuff. She remembered things. Things she had been barely conscious for. Things she hadn't. Things she had forgotten long ago. Never before had her head been able to recall more than remotely what her French teacher had tried to tell her about verbs. She still didn't understand but somehow now she remembered. There was other things too. Memories and knowledge even about things like the fact that the text on the wall in Gallifreyan was a long poem about time and space. This was not something she should have ever been able to read. Learning Gallifreyan through torture wasn't what she had expected.

"Rose," the Doctor's voice called out to her while knocking on her door.

"Come in," she replied. He entered like a guilty man slinking in for his trial. He clearly felt guilty about something and she was realizing it had to do with her from the look in his eyes.

"Something's wrong... with me," she said before he could open his mouth to speak.

"Rose, I'm sorry," he said but his eyes wasn't the eyes of someone preparing to give her the death sentence.

"Just tell me, it's about the stuff I remembered there was something left from when I had the Time Vortex in me" she intoned feeling a slight headache coming on.

"Oh, Rose... It is more complicated than that. I have removed that now to avoid it killing you. However there is more left than that. I should really have checked you out properly after I regenerated," he explained.

She felt tense and a bit afraid. She still couldn't regret saving the Doctor, ending the Time War or any of it before and since. She had long ago prepared herself for the sacrifice involved in living on the TARDIS. It had always since the very first moment been life threateningly dangerous. Now she might be paying a price.

The Doctor reached out and held her hands. "Rose, when you had the Time Vortex it made your body start to change. You're a time traveller that affects you even to begin with but nothing really happens because of that to neither humans or Time Lords, however with the Time Vortex running freely throughout your body it started something. It accelerated time in you. But not by ageing you in the regular sense. You're changing from the DNA upwards, you're walking forward through human evolution now. Little changes have accumulated quickly and in fact you're now closer to a human from the year 6th billion except that you're pure human stock with no alien DNA in you so you're unique nothing like the humans of the future in fact. Worse this process it's accelerating," he explained almost rambling like he was talking to himself.

She felt an ice cold knot in her stomach. She thought back, the feelings of deja-vu she had been developing had been the knowledge of the Vortex bleeding into her mind. However there had been other tiny hints of something. The Wolf hunting Queen Victoria had mentioned it. She had burned like the Sun. Now those minutes of burning was taking their toll. There had been her overhearing of the telepathic communication a few months ago. Lots of little things. "Can you stop it?" she asked and immediately realized the answer from the Doctor's expression. This one was much easier to read than her first one. He was unsure and afraid.

"I could probably do something. Remove the effect on you, but it would be dangerous, risky and could end up destroying you. However Rose I have to try, because sooner or later this process could damage you or change you beyond what you'd recognize as human or just yourself," he explained.

She considered it, she wanted him to try and while change was good, the actual chance of her own body changing into something possible inhuman scared her. "Go for it," she suggested and called for her bravery inside to carry her through. She refused to bow to fear, because there was no point to that.

The Doctor nodded, "It is a little bit complicated. I have to figure out a solution first. Rose, how about I drop you off for a very short visit in a safe place, while I pick up a few things and think it all through."

"You're gonna have me miss the actual research period, yeah," she asked.

He nodded, "it could be a few years and you might not have that long. Besides why waste your time? I have lots more of it."

She didn't like the idea, but she liked the idea of losing her hair or growing a sixth finger much less. "Fine, where are you putting me down," she asked.

"I thought a short shopping trip on Epsilon Eridani might be nice," he offered. She smiled remembering that they had never really gotten to explore the massive space port, she didn't mind much although there was something that had to be said.

"You have to swear. You won't go swanning off without me, you won't leave me," she said knowing her Doctor well enough to realize sometimes he needed a little word. He just replied with a look.

A few days of rest and healing later she stepped out of the TARDIS and watched money in hand as her beloved home disappeared into the timestream.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 4: ... to Queen.**

"Explain this to me again Rose," her Doctor asked as he led her towards the TARDIS. He had appeared just in time to see Rose be celebrated for having prevented a skirmish possibly a war between the Humans and Chtonians.

"It wasn't my fault. I was just trying to help. They were at each other's throats, but I managed to get the Chtonians to trust me. I found out that Alistair guy was up to his ears in trading weapons with both sides. A few words later and I was their golden girl," she explained.

"So all the burns marks and disruptor dust I saw back there, wasn't from some large battle you were up to your nose in," he asked suspicion in his tone of voice.

She smiled coyly. "Well, I kind of forgot that Alistair's men were kind of upset with me and the guys didn't want to sit around and wait for me to get shot, so there was a bit of a firefight, but I wasn't in it. I swear," she said.

He looked her over and nodded to himself. "Alright, let's get in and get started," he said and held the door open for her.

"So how long has it been for you?" she asked as he studied her intensely.

"Not long half a year maybe," he said.

"All alone to help me," she couldn't help herself. Her heart almost sang with joy and she threw her arms around him and gave him a thankful hug.

"Don't hug me yet, it is not all good news," he said as they wandered into the TARDIS. There was a large new addition looking like a large gun.

"What's that?" she asked feeling that it looked a bit ominous especially as she suspected it was meant for her.

He turned and looked towards her. "I'm afraid that is meant for you," the Doctor said.

"You wanna shoot me?" She asked.

"Come over here and sit with me," he asked. She obeyed and sat next to him in the old sofa-like seats behind the TARDIS console.

"I'm afraid things haven't exactly resolved themselves to my satisfaction, however this is about as good as I can come up with unless I reconstruct a lot of artifacts from Gallifrey, which is impossible without my people. Rose, I am unsure this is a viable solution for your problem. That thing there it would remove the remaining Time Vortex energy from all your cells. But in the process I'd have no control over when in the timeline I extracted the energy meaning you might still change or change back. And even worse it could still kill or damage you along the way... But if I don't use it, the process will go on and on. I don't know Rose. I can't decide for you, you'll have to do it," he explained.

"Do it," she immediately said. She trusted him and if it was potential change either way then she'd choose his way rather than any random future. Danger be damned her doctor would take care of her.

He stared at her for a few moments then gave her a broad smile. "My brave little flower," he said and caressed her chin. She enjoyed the closeness realizing that she missed being really close to any one. She was friends with the Doctor but whenever she felt they were about to become something more something stopped him and she couldn't bring herself to do much more than flirt much as she wanted too either.

He got up and mumbled, "No time like the present." Suddenly she felt a knot in her stomach. Nervous energy she realized. She needed to distract herself. The Doctor started setting things up first launching the TARDIS into the Time Vortex.

She decided that of all times to examine her thoughts on this. If she was really honest with herself, she couldn't take the next step with the Doctor because she really wanted someone who would commit to her fully, but she knew it couldn't be with him. The Doctor had long ago decided to be the gateway to expanding her universe but nothing more. Sarah had planted the seed for this thought long ago. She had opened her eyes just as much as their encounter with Reinette, and the realization that she would end up being just another companion to the Doctor. Was this the reason that the Doctor had warned her about that one day she would leave him rather than him leaving her. There had to be another way a better way.

"Rose," the Doctor said with a tone of worry. She looked up and nodded. She was nearly tearing up now and she had done it too herself. She should leave things unexamined especially with a life like the one she led. Still better than the one she had left. Maybe that was what she needed. To find a better life beyond all this, but something told her it might not be with the Doctor or even at home with her mum. Everyone left home in the end.

"I'm ready," she mumbled feeling suddenly a bit small looking at the device, at the TARDIS and at the Doctor. It was a feeling she hated. She had fled home because she felt uneducated, unappreciated and living at a dead end. Now she had somehow started wondering if one day she would leave a life of adventure behind. "Get your head in the game," she berated herself mentally realizing that she was potentially staring down the barrel at her death or yet another life changing event.

"Rose, if this fails... I..." He looked at her with worry and despair. She realized then that he had this solution long ago, but all the time since and it was probably more than he told her he had fought to find a better way. Now he was nearly chickening out.

"Doctor I know, it is taking a chance, but it's better than the alternative," she argued.

"You could live with the alterations for a long time before anything happens," he suggested.

"No, Doctor I won't. Listen I want this done and over with. If it's to be a change let it be only one not a life time's worth. Do it," she said, while in her head his words echoed, but her tendency to jump in and take the quick solution had already made her speak.

He gave her another long look full of regret and apology as if he had made her make a devil's bargain with the TARDIS. "Here we go," he said and flicked a switch. The recently silenced engine of the TARDIS sprang back in motion and the device fired a golden mist at her. There was a moment of white hot pain.

With depredation he watched the mist flow into Rose and fill her completely. Rose shook back in the seat, opened her mouth like she was screaming. He wanted to go to her, hold her even to flick his invention off again, but it was to no avail. The Mist swirled in a ever speeding tornado around Rose pulling more and more of the residual energy out of her. She seemed to practically glow inside out. Then his device switched off, the mist disappeared and Rose slumped clearly unconscious.

He almost yelled in exultation as he saw her chest rise and fall with regular breath. He ran the few steps towards her. Rose evaporated into a tiny cloud of golden light motes just as his hands reached her. Just like that she became an outline then was completely gone. "Rose! No! Rose! Oh no," he screamed her name then thumped the seat where his only twenty years old best companion ever had been moments earlier.

She was in some sort of dreamland surrounded by angelic singing and golden whorls while her body tingled strangely. She looked down but there was nothing. She held out her hands but saw only more light. "Doctor, doctor," she yelled but there was no answer just more that singing. Singing which she recognized as the same she had heard in her head when she had tried saving her Doctor the first one she had known.

She drifted for a long time, she thought, she screamed, she panicked then after a long time she just cried and wished to be home safe and sound wrapped in a hug by her mum. There was massive rush through her like a sneeze and everything turned white again.

After so long the golden nothing she found herself blinking as she saw colours again. She realized she was looking down the colonnade leading towards her mum's apartment. "What? How?" she said and looked around. It was glaringly obvious now. She had feared she had been dead, but now it looked like that wasn't the case. The Doctor's device, he had warned her that it might have an effect on her. Maybe it had blown her back in time, however getting home was by far not the worst place she could've ended up.

"Oh, no, I've lost the Doctor," she realized, "and I have no idea when this is." She almost panicked again then after a few moments she managed to calm herself. She walked calmly towards her mum's place hoping she hadn't hit some weird point in time and was about to cause a paradox. Still she wanted to, needed to see her mum. She wandered up to door and looked around. The markings, the drapes, the colours all looked like home. She knocked.

A few minutes later her mum opened the door with a muttered, "yeah yeah keep your knickers on."

"Mum," she asked studying the woman to see if she had somehow landed correctly.

"Rose, oh, god, Rose it is so good to see you. It's been so long... So you and your Doctor are back for a visit yeah," her mum intoned.

"No, it's just me," she said and grabbed her mum in a fierce hug glad to be home and suddenly realizing how much fun and life threatening danger she had been in and what wonders and horrors she had seen since she had last been at home in those arms.

"Alright, it's alright, you just come in. I'll make us some tea yeah," her mum said, but a voice just like her mum's clearly pained with feelings of loneliness continued, "but it is not like you'll tell me the truth only the edited bits. I just know it Rose, he had taken you from me and made you great. He has sharpened your thorns but also given you grace and strength. It must because your dad wasn't there to bring you up that you need him."

She blinked immediately realizing that those words had been thought or felt more than vocalized. "Yeah, tea would be nice," she intoned focusing on not listening in on her mum. She knew from her experiences that it was both bad form for a telepath and a horrible thing to do for any moral person. Even more shaken and confused she followed her mother inside. It was weird coming home. She had noticed it last Christmas, she had felt it when they had come back from the parallel reality and she had run to embrace her mother. She still occasionally needed the person, but she felt weird coming home... no visiting her mum's place. That was it. It was her mum's place now. She had left home.

But she was barely inside and sitting down before her thoughts headed straight back to her situation. She had been blown back in time to her home and somehow lost the Doctor. She hoped he would think to look for her here, but she had to face that unless he guessed somehow that she had survived he would probably think her dead. "Here you are," her mum said and placed the steaming cup on the small table in front of the TV, which she thankfully didn't turn on.

"Rose," her mum said with a note of worry in her voice. "Why are you back?" she asked.

"I dunno," she replied. "I was with the Doctor and something happened. I ended up back here... Mum, I think... maybe I've lost him. Maybe he won't come looking for me," she admitted voicing her current fears.

"Rose, you're not making sense. What happened?" her mum said and her voice continued mentally, "I would like to smack that asshole. First he takes Rose, then Mickey and now she comes back and... And there is something different about her. Wait a minute is her hair a different colour not really and yet it is?" She shook her head to stop hearing her mother's thoughts. Being telepathic even just slightly as it seemed she was, was rather more a pain than she had imagined. She fully appreciated why the Doctor never used his much. She tried to avoid thinking about how she was suddenly telepathic. It was apart of a lot of things she'd rather not deal with.

"I was sick and the Doctor invented something to cure me," she said and saw the immediate anger directed at the Doctor all over her mum's face. "It wasn't his fault. It was my fault I was sick not his. I think he cured me, but something went a little wrong and I was back here like I had been dropped off by the TARDIS," she explained and wondered again why she was back here. All her mum could give her was advice on daily mucking about in 2006 London nothing else. Maybe it was just the comfort of saying things. She wondered why she was being so introspective. Maybe she was getting older. She took a calming first sip of her cup.

"Darling, it's not like you to be quiet like this," her mum interjected.

"I know, it's just... it's just a lot," she said worrying about what she would do now and what was happening to the Doctor.

He sat the TARDIS down in the year 2006 of Earth. He wanted to forget Rose. He wanted to let her scent, her voice and everything else become happy memories and pleasant what ifs rather than the constant torture that had plagued him for months now. He had erred and he had killed her. She had said she was ready, but how could she. She had been but a very very young Earthling, whom he, spurred by loneliness and recognition of a being repressed far below her potential, had stolen away from her life. And in the process he had destroyed her. Rose, Jackie and Mickey had suffered for his egotistical attitude. His last incarnation had the right thought when he sent her away before she died in battle. She had gone back to him. She had given him the mental freedom, the sheer joy of life that had driven their many adventures this year. And in one move he had obliterated her.

He had searched for her using the TARDIS. Well if he was honest he had done it after he had brought himself low in alcohol, tears and screaming. Not since the days after his destruction of Gallifrey had he mourned like this. He had gone through all stages of grief. Now there was only one thing left. He needed to go and face the last person aside from him that knew really knew his Rose his beautiful dead flower. Jackie's flat that he had avoided for so long was no more than a few steps away. He knocked.

Jackie opened the door, literally tore it open obviously having seen him through the door spy. "You, you, bastard, I hate you," she screamed and attacked him tears in her eyes making long tracks of mascara on her face. He wondered for a moment as he tried to avoid the worst of her anger, if he had spoken without noticing, but realized that it wasn't so.

He grabbed her arms and tried to hold them still. Jackie flailed about a little then looked up at him. "You did this too her and now she is gone," she almost wailed with misery, "you've made her into an alien. I want her back, give me my Rose back. Make her come back."

He stared at Jackie in confusion. "Jackie, I don't understand. I came to tell you I lost Rose." She continued repeated the same words for a while then stopped staring at his face, probably finally understanding that he really didn't know.

"You mean... Oh, dear. Well come on in. I have something to tell ya and its a bit of a shocker," Jackie said.

She sat him down in the living room, which looked as messy and cluttered as during his last visit. Jackie sat in the couch and looked at him with her black stained eyes. "Listen, I didn't understand half of it. Rose came back a while back all alone. She was different. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something different about her. She told me, she had been sick and you'd tried to cure her, but something went wrong and she was flung back here with me. She couldn't make sense of it," she explained.

He felt like he had suddenly had an infusion of joy. Like a wildfire happiness spread through his body and mind. He hadn't killed Rose it seemed. Somehow he hadn't killed her like he had feared. Instead she had somehow been catapulted back here to her home. The questions of why here and how suddenly loomed large in his mind, but while a wide grin sprouted on his lips unbidden, Jackie went on sounding solemn.

"She wasn't herself. I knew that. She was quiet, thoughtful maybe even a bit introverted. Rose was never like that before. She did a lot of strange things too like finish my sentences and yell at the TV telling people on it they were being stupid. Still she's my daughter and I welcomed her home. She even stayed for a little bit. I think she hoped you'd dare show your face even if she warned me that sometimes you abandoned people," she gave him a warning glare. He winced at the thought, something had obviously lingered in Rose's mind after their encounter with Sarah-Jane.

"But then it started Doctor. I don't... I am not even sure if she is Rose anymore. She was so strange. She... god... Doctor she floats when she sleeps. Only a few centimeters off the blankets. When she sneezed the power in the estate goes on the blink. Then finally one day it happened. Another Rose showed up asking to speak with herself and apologizing for the confusion... She... They talked for a few moments then the first one that been here with me. She closed her eyes and focused. There was a strange noise in the air... like beautiful singing and then my Rose... one of them any way disappeared," she explained.

He was horrified and intrigued at the same time. Rose, poor, darling Rose, his cure hadn't worked it was clear now. He thought about what Jackie had said. The changes sounded massive staggering even, but the last part was horrid and fantastic at the same time. Somehow Rose had become a naturally time traveller. Just like the TARDIS... She was probably confused the dear girl, but she was alive. He needed to find her. "Jackie, where is she now... The one who stayed behind, where did she go?" he asked.

Jackie gave him a despairing glance then explained, "She said, that she had just told herself to try and jump a few days back in time because that was what she had always done and that doing so would teach her that she was able to. She told me that she had figured it out. She was no longer my Rose. She was a new Rose the same but in a different body. She spoke about evolution and stuff like that. I didn't really understand. Any way she looked at me and apologized again."

"_Mum, please listen. I know you don't understand. I barely do. But just listen. I am going to go now. I won't be gone forever, but I must try to find the Doctor. I'm afraid what he is thinking. I must look for him. I don't know if I can. If I stay here he might show up some day somewhere, but the chances aren't great and I don't want to lose him. But listen, if he comes here, tell him... Tell him I don't blame him and that I'll be back in six months if I don't find him before that._

"That is what she said," Jackie explained.

"Jackie, when was that. How long ago?" he asked.

Jackie looked up and walked over taking down a calendar which she checked. "Three months," she said.

"And I am off," he said and quickly headed for the door with his jacket whirling around him.

"Wait a bloody minute," Jackie cursed.

He turned and looked at the intensely angry looking woman. "I want you to be honest, Doctor! Can you bring her back? Is she still my daughter?" she ranted.

"I don't know Jackie. I don't know if I can, if I should change her back. I do know one thing though and I know Rose does too. Everyone changes all the time all our lives. It is when we stop. When we stop striving. When we stop running. When we stop living and wait to die that your time passes fast and leaves your life worthless," he turned took a step for the door then stopped realizing he had left something important unsaid, "And Jackie... There is no way that Rose Tyler has or would ever stop being your daughter. She is still your Rose only different. Don't let that get between you."

He ran outside and headed for the TARDIS. He could of course look for Rose heading through time and space for days, months and years, but he knew what his first stop should be: 3 months in the future of this council estate.

Travelling through time under her own power was a glorious experience. From the moment between thinking and imagining the target, feeling able to just sense exactly the point in time she wanted to reach. To the moment when she dove in the wild benevolence of the Vortex and swimming through a golden whirlpool before emerging on the other side feeling warm and refreshed. She was unsure of her abilities and limitations but she wanted to be careful for now. She had told herself first to jump back in time creating a tiny paradox before telling her mum about her next return and hoping the Doctor would hear about it.

She had considered travelling through time to the far future, but she didn't have the translation circuit of the TARDIS nor the proud ship's sensors and so she opted instead to remain on Earth jumping back and forth at historic events looking for him, but first she would jump to the future and see if the Doctor was there and if not leave before anyone else of her arrived back there to actually stay with her mum. She focused and pushed herself into the Vortex.

She could actually feel herself now. She was like a spark, a presence jaunting back and forth through the Vortex. There myriads of others as well echoes of herself, of the TARDIS, the Doctor and infinities of other things. She couldn't tell or follow them and so she opted for good old investigation instead. The warm tingling of the Vortex ended and she arrived on the windswept estate in the middle of late autumn. The chill immediately told her about another benefit of a ship like the TARDIS. She headed for the estate proper when she felt it. The presence of the TARDIS was astonishing to say the least. It was like suddenly meeting a giant.

But a gentle one. With its friendly power the ship's mind reached hers and unable to articulate much more it transferred warm and almost overpowering feelings of welcome, joy and finally almost motherly pride to her before pressing into her mind and making sure she could understand everything including the Doctor. She turned and walked in the direction she felt the ship stood in.

She walked towards the ship as it stood in between the tall buildings, when she saw the Doctor jump out of the TARDIS looking confused. She had no idea how long the TARDIS had stood there, but he looked a bit tired and a whole lot worried. "What is that?" he articulated and seemed to sweep the area with his eyes until his eyes met hers. They widened in recognition. She couldn't help grinning before running towards him.

"Doctor," she yelled happily.

"Rose, oh, Rose," he replied and lifted her into a close hug. He drew back and stared at her. His eyes examined her and she felt the feather light touches of his trained telepathy slide across her mind. He withdrew as if burned. "It is you, but... I am sorry. I tried, I really did," he explained.

"Doctor, I'm alright. It's hard and strange, but I'm fine," she explained meaning every word.

He gave her a look and to her surprise it wasn't a look of pity but one of respect that he so rarely gave her, but always meant when he did. "Rose, you're fantastic. You're simply the best. I am so glad to know you're alive and well," he explained but his eyes were suddenly sad as if he was facing some future he had long dreaded.

"Doctor, I... I don't want to leave you and travel on my own. I can't stay here not any more and I can't go out there on my own. I don't want too. Please let me come with you," she begged afraid her changing would make him chuck her out or freeze her out.

He suddenly broke into a wide happy smile, "Are you sure? I mean I ruined..."

There was song like note and another Rose appeared next to them looking happy. The Doctor immediately grew grim at the appearance of her double. "Don't worry, I know about paradoxes, but this one has always been in the timeline, I always appeared to myself at this moment. Mind you it was the last time, it gives me headaches you know," the new Rose said as she stood there with perfectly set hair dressed like a princess in light white dress and white shoes.

"You were probably apologizing. I seem to remember you were. And you you soppy girly girl, you were tearing up yet again," she smiled at her herself then continued, "you're both not done with each other yet. No I know Doctor, I am not going to tell you about the future. Paradoxes equal monster headaches for me now. Rose you need to listen to this it is important. You two need to stay together, not forever but at least a while longer Doctor. I need you to teach me about being a good person, an explorer, but I also need to ask you to teach me other stuff to be able to survive. I need to know a bit more about the science and the Time Vortex aside from all of time and space. I know teaching from books sound dreary to both of you but not to worry that is not what I am asking. Teach by example but do try to teach me Doctor. I am going on a great quest too and a lot of it will be with you, but some of it won't and the Vortex won't always be there to help me. Finally the two of you I promise and I should know I was there. You're going to have a fantastic time."

She disappeared like a fading ghost of golden sparkles leaving them smiling and astounded. "Rose, you coming," the Doctor said and headed for the TARDIS.

"Of course," she replied with a grin and ran inside.

And if you listened as they walked inside you'd have heard. "I think you're gonna have a legend and a few nicknames of your own soon."

"Come off it," a girl's voice replied.

"Bad Wolf," the man's voice said in a teasing tone as the pumping noise started. There was laughter emanating from the Blue Box as it faded from sight.


End file.
